A spacesuit at the megastore

Decathlon and Spartan Space have unveiled Eurosuit, which French astronaut Sophie Adenot will wear on her next mission aboard the ISS. Space is becoming increasingly “pop.”

BY EMILIO COZZI

Maybe one day it will be possible to find a spacesuit on the shelves of a major sports megastore.
In the meantime, you are more likely to come across garments and outfits derived from the technological innovations developed for Eurosuit, the Decathlon branded spacesuit. The first to wear it will be Sophie Adenot, the French astronaut who in a few months will depart for the European Space Agency’s Epsilon mission aboard the International Space Station.

This is not the bulky suit that has entered the collective imagination, the one worn by astronauts on the Moon or during extravehicular activities. The prototype of the intra vehicular suit is nonetheless designed to be worn during two no less delicate phases: launch and return to Earth.
Astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsules wear similar ones; although more agile to allow easier movement, they can still protect the wearer thanks to the breathing helmet and the ability to pressurize, creating a cushion of air around the body at the correct pressure. This can save an astronaut’s life in the event of an accident and a sudden depressurization of the cabin.

The French National Center for Space Studies coordinated the entire project; Spartan Space, a company based in Septèmes les Vallons and specialized in pressurized habitable environments for extreme places such as space, is the prime contractor, responsible for the design and life support of the suit; the French Institute for Space Medicine developed the vital parameter monitoring system; Decathlon contributed its expertise in technical fabrics and ergonomics.

This is not the first time a major brand has aimed for the stars. Other examples date back to the dawn of space exploration. On the Moon, astronauts wore an Omega Speedmaster, the Moonwatch, and used Hasselblad cameras modified to withstand the extreme environment. These were not objects specifically designed for space, but rather adapted to the purpose with only a few modifications. Famous, too, was the Cola war, a space race between Pepsi and Coca Cola to sweeten the missions of astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle, but above all to claim the record for the first sip of a soda in orbit.

Until not many years ago, it was mainly industry companies in the space sector that worked behind the scenes of major programs and missions, developing cutting edge technologies that then returned to Earth as spinoffs in the form of inventions capable of improving everyday life. The most cited examples include memory foam, developed for astronauts’ seats and later entering the bedrooms of much of the population. The miniaturization of chips and the sensors in digital cameras are another legacy of space research that today everyone carries in their pockets.

The reverse trend, particularly in a mainstream sense, is more recent: in the realm of spacewear it has already happened with Prada, which will design the Axiom suit for future lunar explorers. Now another pop company is flying into orbit thanks to recognized terrestrial know how.
It is a trend interpretable as a new phase of the space economy, in which giants known for mass consumer products work in partnership with specialized companies: Lavazza collaborated with Argotec for the Italian Space Agency. Together they managed to bring to the International Space Station the first machine to make coffee in orbit, with a brilliant brand name: Isspresso.
The Axiom suit will also feature a visor developed by Oakley, a major name in sports sunglasses, with lunar dust resistant and sun shielding technology. Irid Technology, an Italian company, worked on something similar for the prototype spacesuit by the Apulia based Rea Space. Remaining in Italy, Barilla and Dallara flew aboard the International Space Station with the mission of Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei in 2024.

All this while waiting to taste space pasta in our homes, or to choose from store shelves something designed to be an astronaut suit for your next trip to the peaks of the Himalayas.
This, if you think about it, has already been happening for years (materials for spacesuits are widely used in sports clothing, and vice versa).
Of course, these are not merely advertising activities; they are technological and commercial operations together, the result of research and capable of leading, as space history teaches, to major innovations. They signal a paradigm shift that also reflects a cultural evolution: space seems and is closer in many ways. In the possibility of accessing it (still reserved for millionaires, but gradually more inclusive) and in the opportunity to benefit from it.
We could simply return to Eurosuit: it is described as a revolutionary innovation because it can be donned or removed in less than two minutes and completely independently. And because it is comfortable.
So space becomes comfortable. This, too, is a cultural revolution.