| Pressure | TBD |
| Suit mass (1g) | TBD |
| Life support (primary) | Vehicle-supported — spacecraft interfaces |
| Life support (backup) | Emergency oxygen |
| EVA duration | N/A |
| Program | CNES / ESA εpsilon |
| Agency | CNES + ESA |
| Manufacturer | Spartan Space + MEDES + Decathlon |
| First use | 2026 |
| Status | Active prototype — ISS tested 2026 |
| Donning / entry | Autonomous don/doff target under 2 minutes; ergonomic design with commercial manufacturing |
Biomonitoring integration; rapid autonomous donning; human factors; Decathlon textile expertise; MEDES medical research; tested by Sophie Adenot on ISS during εpsilon 2026
Launch, landing and emergency alert phases — IVA crew safety
Prototype not yet certified operational; not EVA-capable; full qualification path not yet public
"Non-traditional partners — sports equipment manufacturers, medical research institutes — can enter human spaceflight hardware through IVA rather than EVA"
The active European wedge into crewed spaceflight hardware. Biomonitoring, rapid donning and human factors are the European competitive advantage
Technically sound rear-entry EVA prototype never operationalized — cancelled when parent Hermes/Columbus program context changed
→ A technically correct architecture without a funded anchor mission will not survive program review — mission pull must precede or accompany suit development
ESA astronauts have operated in partner suits (Orlan, EMU, ACES, SpaceX) for 30+ years without a European sovereign EVA capability
→ User experience in partner systems is valuable but does not substitute for sovereign design authority — Europe must choose between partner dependency and independent capability
"Europe proved the rear-entry rapid-donning concept works — but without a funded anchor mission the architecture never matured"
