Decathlon is Heading to Space with EuroSuit Prototype for 2026 ISS Mission
- Staff Correspondent
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Decathlon is officially entering the space sector, and doing so with a bold step that blends sports engineering with human spaceflight innovation.
In a milestone announced today, 14 November 2025, Decathlon CEO Javier López Segovia declared:“I am incredibly proud to announce that Decathlon is heading to space!”
The company has partnered with the European Space Agency (ESA) as astronaut Sophie Adenot prepares to test the first intra-vehicular activity (IVA) EuroSuit prototype aboard the International Space Station in 2026.
This next-generation IVA suit, designed for launch, re-entry, and emergency operations, marks a major evolution in Europe’s ambitions for astronaut safety, ergonomics, and human-factor engineering.
A Strategic Collaboration Rooted in European Innovation
The EuroSuit project draws its strength from a uniquely European ecosystem of expertise. Decathlon joined forces with:
Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES)
Spartan Space, a Marseille-based company known for habitat and crew-system innovations
MEDES – Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology
This collaboration builds on foundations laid in 2024, when CNES, Decathlon, Spartan Space, and MEDES launched a multi-year effort to create Europe’s first fully European IVA suit system. The partnership blends Decathlon’s consumer-sport innovation culture with CNES’s technical leadership, MEDES’s biomedical insight, and Spartan Space’s modular habitat design.
What began as a forward-leaning R&D program has now matured into a flight-ready prototype cleared for testing on the ISS, an unusually fast development cycle for life-support-adjacent crew hardware.
Engineering Designed for the Harshest Possible Environment
In his announcement, Javier emphasized the power of Decathlon’s Advanced Innovation team to translate sports-driven ergonomics and human-performance design into the space domain.
He highlighted a key milestone: The EuroSuit can be donned or removed in under two minutes, a major advantage for astronaut safety during launch and landing operations.
The integration of Decathlon’s lightweight materials, mobility-focused ergonomics, and intuitive design principles reflects a growing trend in the space sector: leveraging commercial R&D to accelerate, diversify, and cost-optimize spaceflight systems.
For ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, the upcoming mission is not only a test flight but a demonstration of Europe’s capacity to shape the next era of crew systems independently.
A Historic Step for Europe’s Space Industry
The EuroSuit prototype doesn’t just represent a technological test; it symbolizes a wider strategic shift:
A European-made suit tested on the ISS
A nontraditional commercial partner, Decathlon, at the center of a flight hardware program
A scalable model for dual-use design across sports, medicine, and space systems
As Javier stated, this milestone belongs to the hundreds of Decathlon engineers and innovators who contributed: “My deepest congratulations and thanks to the hundreds of amazing Decathlon teammates who made this possible.”
2026 will now mark a historic moment: the first time a product built with consumer-sport design DNA is tested in orbit, showing how cross-sector innovation can redefine the future of human spaceflight.