![\"European](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/European-Spacesuit-to-be-Tested-Aboard-ISS-in-2026.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
During her mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2026, French astronaut Sophie Adenot will be tasked with testing a European intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit.<\/p>\n
In late 2023, the French space agency CNES contracted Spartan Space, the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES), and the sporting goods retailer Decathlon to conduct an initial study for a European intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit<\/a>. Following the successful completion of this phase of the project, CNES awarded the trio a second contract in late 2024 to develop a prototype that could be tested aboard the ISS.<\/p>\n In May 2024, ESA announced that Sophie Adenot and Rapha\u00ebl Li\u00e9geois were the first members of its newest astronaut class to be assigned long-duration missions<\/a> to the ISS. In July 2025, CNES announced the scientific and technological experiments that will accompany Adenot during her long-duration mission, including EuroSuit, the IVA spacesuit prototype developed within the CNES-led effort.<\/p>\n On 14 November, Decathlon CEO Javier L\u00f3pez Segovia published the first images of the suit, a project he described as \u201cbringing together the world of space exploration, science, medicine and sport.\u201d<\/p>\n During testing aboard the orbiting laboratory, the ergonomics of the suit will be evaluated, with a particular focus on how easily it can be put on and taken off. According to the Decathlon CEO, the suit is designed to be donned or removed in under two minutes.<\/p>\n While the project\u2019s short-term focus is on the suit\u2019s ergonomics, CNES has linked the project to a broader goal of preparing Europe for \u201csovereignty in human space exploration.\u201d Europe is not currently pursuing the development of its own crew transportation capability. However, as part of its LEO Cargo Return Services initiative, the European Space Agency has instructed participants to design cargo capsules that \u201ccompatible with the evolution towards a crew transportation.\u201d<\/a> This element of the initiative is likely to be a topic of discussion during ESA\u2019s Ministerial Council meeting later this month, where Member States will be asked to approve funding for Phase 2 activities.<\/p>\n Keep European Spaceflight Independent<\/p>\n Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During her mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2026, French astronaut Sophie Adenot will be tasked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3877,3014,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-572989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-cnes","9":"tag-european-space-agency","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115556376475699124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}