European astronaut Sophie Adenot travelled to the International Space Station on 13 February 2026. Her SpaceX Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Florida with three colleagues on board. Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway of NASA joined the flight, along with Andrei Fedyaev of Russia. The crew reached the station a day after launch. Adenot will remain in orbit for nine months on her first mission.
The mission carries the name Epsilon, a word borrowed from mathematics and astronomy. In equations it stands for a very small quantity, while in the sky it marks the fifth-brightest star of a constellation. Adenot says the choice honours work that looks modest yet matters. Her crew runs experiments that show how bodies and materials behave without gravity. Ground teams follow every test from Europe. Such results guide the design of longer journeys beyond Earth.