French astronaut Sophie Adenot is back in Europe after nearly eight months in space. She spent 237 days on the International Space Station for her mission, called epsilon. On October 7, she and three crewmates left the station in a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The capsule splashed down on October 8 after a journey of about 27 and a half hours. After medical checks, the crew flew to Houston.
On October 9, Sophie boarded a French military plane to Cologne, Germany, home of ESA's astronaut center. Friends and colleagues welcomed her on October 10. Her mission set a new European record for the longest single spaceflight. It beat the previous record, held by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, by more than 35 days. Crew-12 was also the longest Dragon mission so far. Over the next two to three weeks, Sophie will adjust to gravity again and go through medical data collection.