Earlier this year, Under Armour, the international sportswear brand, announced the collaboration to create exclusive technical spacewear for the Future Astronauts of Virgin Galactic. Amongst the spacewear fabric materials, TENCEL™ Luxe Lyocell filament yarns were featured. This marks a historical moment for Lenzing, as this is the first time TENCEL™ branded fibers are used in making spacewear clothing.

Originally, Virgin Galactic was in the progress of completing their flight test program of spaceship Unity and had asked Under Armour to develop the world’s first commercial spaceline. In this project, Under Armour produced the base layer, spacesuit and the footwear for the Future Astronaut.

The TENCEL™ team took part in creating the liner of the Under Armour spacesuit, by using TENCEL™ Luxe branded fibers for temperature control and moisture management. We understood this is an extremely important part of the spacesuit, as Future Astronauts will be going through extreme temperatures and will need to a suit that can retain their normal temperature and moisture during the journey. In light of this, it was then decided to use the TENCEL™ Luxe Lyocell filament yarn in order to ensure that the Future Astronaut will have a comfortable and safe experience. Each finished spacesuit went through meticulous testing at Under Armour with supervision from the members of the Virgin Galactic team.

As a brand who strongly advocates for sustainable clothing, TENCEL™ recognized this project as an exciting new challenge for the company. We are proud to partner with a top athletic brand and the brilliant team at Virgin Galactic to create such innovation. We hope to continue in challenging ourselves to deliver sustainable products across different textile segments. With this collaboration, we took this as an opportunity to step-up our promotion for TENCEL™ branded fibers and raise awareness of the need for more sustainable fashion.