HOUSTON, USA, Oct. 12, 2026 - During Crew-12's mission on the International Space Station, NASA's Jessica Meir completed four spacewalks and ESA's Sophie Adenot three, for maintenance and upgrades.^[1][2] Meir's career total is now seven, third among female NASA astronauts.^[3] Adenot set a new record for the longest spaceflight by an ESA astronaut.^[4] Artemis II pilot Victor Glover said in an interview with 6AM W that human missions to Mars are growing closer.^[5] His crew already holds a record: in April 2026, Artemis II carried humans farther from Earth than ever before, more than 250,000 miles, on a nearly ten-day lunar flyby.^[6] The mission gathered 814 gigabytes of lunar science data between 1 and 10 April,^[7] now archived with more than 11,000 high-resolution photos and videos in NASA's Planetary Data System.^[8] And the next generation is lining up: Mariana Lucía Rodríguez, 17, of Valledupar, Colombia, was selected for NASA's 2026 Ella Es Astronauta Latam immersion programme.^[9] Related coverage: Crew-12 astronauts return safely to Earth after eight month ISS mission Impact Insight. Spacewalks, formally extravehicular activities, let crews repair and upgrade the station's exterior and typically last six to seven hours. The link to planetary defense is indirect: long-duration crew experience and deep-space flights build the capability that any future crewed visit to a near-Earth asteroid would need.