Fashion meets rocket science: CMU Online graduate helps build spacesuit for NASA Moon mission

“If you had told me nine years ago that I would be sewing spacesuits, I would have never believed you.” 

Recent CMU graduate Falanne Jenkins can say that now with a little disbelief and a whole lot of pride. 

Nine years ago, Jenkins was a Navy veteran, a single mom and a working adult with little time to spare. She was raising a young son, managing a demanding work schedule and wondering how college could possibly fit. At the same time, she was teaching herself to sew, a skill that began with a practical goal: making a budget-friendly, reusable cloth diaper for her son. 

That first sewing project would eventually become something much bigger. 

Today, Jenkins is a graduate of Central Michigan University’s online Fashion Merchandising and Design program, and she’s working with Houston-based Axiom Space to build the next generation of spacesuits that will take astronauts to the moon. 

The path from online student to aerospace sewing technician was never simple or easy. It was built during lunch breaks at work and after bedtime at home, with military benefits, support from faculty and a refusal to accept “no” as the final answer when it came to the career and life she wanted for herself and her son. 

“I kept looking for the right time to start school,” Jenkins said. “Eventually, I realized I would be waiting forever if I waited for the time to be right.” 

From Navy precision to aerospace soft goods

Jenkins joined the Navy because she wanted a brighter future. 

For seven years, she served as an electrician on Navy helicopters, supporting special operations and learning to work in an environment where precision, discipline and problem-solving mattered every day. 

“It was so fast paced. I really enjoyed my work with the Navy” she said.

After her son, Rowan, was born, Jenkins began thinking differently about her future. As a single mother, she worried about caring for him during deployments. She wanted stability, room to grow and more time at home, so she made the difficult decision to leave the Navy. 

Her next career steps eventually brought her to Texas and into work connected to the space industry. She worked on the Bishop Airlock and later found herself on-site at NASA, building test equipment connected to spacesuit work. 

That is where her technical background and growing interest in sewing began to connect. 

Jenkins became fascinated by soft goods, the flexible, textile-based components used in aerospace systems. The field combined the precision she knew from her Navy and avionics experience with the sewing and design skills she had begun building as a mom trying to solve a practical problem for her son. 

Her curiosity led her to ask colleagues what it would take to start a career in aerospace soft goods. 

The answer she heard was discouraging: she would likely need an engineering degree or a significant background in the fashion industry. 

But Jenkins did not take that as the final answer. 

“I’m going to do this,” she remembers thinking. “I’m going to get a fashion degree and do something big.” 

Jenkins began researching online fashion programs and weighing her options carefully. She wanted a strong education, but she also needed a program that could fit the realities of her life. 

“I didn’t want school to be more complicated than it had to be,” she said. 

CMU Online stood out to Jenkins for its quality, flexibility and support for veterans. The product development path in the Fashion Merchandising and Design bachelor’s degree program gave her the versatility she was looking for. 

“I needed a degree that could give me options and a little bit of freedom,” Jenkins said. “The program allowed me to explore so many different opportunities.” 

For Jenkins, earning a degree was not about checking a box. It was about pursuing a specific goal and creating new possibilities for herself and her son. 

“It doesn’t matter what degree you get,” she said. “What matters is that you articulate what you want to do and make it happen.” 

That kind of determination is exactly what CMU Online is designed to support, said Kaleb Patrick, vice president of CMU Online. “Falanne’s journey reflects what CMU Online does best: meeting students where they are, supporting them as they grow, and helping them turn their determination into opportunity.” 

Like many adult students, Jenkins did not experience college as a separate chapter of life. It was woven into everything she was already carrying. 

Her son was seven years old when she started classes. After work, parenting and evening routines, she would put Rowan to bed and begin her own assignments. 

Some nights, they did their homework together.

“Fashion homework is definitely not easy,” she said. Her class assignments demanded focus, creativity and discipline. 

But Jenkins said the support from CMU faculty made a difference. 

“Everyone was very supportive,” she said. “Always open to questions and ready to help.” 

She also came to appreciate the quality of the program more deeply as she moved through it. Her courses taught skills she could actually use at work, from technical illustration and communication to a stronger understanding of textiles and product development. 

That connection between classroom learning and professional application is central to the program, said Dr. Tanya Domina, chair of CMU’s Fashion Merchandising and Design department. 

The skills Jenkins developed at CMU helped her become more efficient, more confident and more precise in how she communicated as a designer.

“Students who thrive in our program learn to connect creativity with purpose,” Domina said. “They are prepared to solve real problems in real professional settings, even when that setting is the Moon.” 

Sewing for the Moon 

At Axiom Space, Jenkins is helping build components for next-generation spacesuits designed to support NASA’s Artemis lunar missions. 

Her focus is on the spacesuit’s gloves, one of the most critical and complex parts of the suit. A glove has to allow astronauts to move freely while also protecting them in one of the most extreme environments humans can enter. 

It can take more than a month to make a single glove.

Because of the conditions astronauts face, even a tiny issue with a spacesuit can have serious consequences. Something as seemingly small as an abrasion can affect an astronaut’s body and their ability to complete their work. In that environment, precision sewing is part of the safety system. 

“It makes you think about every single stitch,” Jenkins said. “It’s not just a moon suit. It’s a personal spacecraft.” 

Building confidence one stitch at a time 

Jenkins says she was intimidated when she first entered aerospace sewing. 

The field is highly specialized. She was working alongside people with deep NASA, fashion and engineering experience. There are not many space seamstresses in the world, and Jenkins knew she was stepping into rare territory. 

But she was up for the challenge. 

“Turns out, I’m a very good seamstress,” she said. 

That confidence did not arrive all at once. It came through practice, humility and persistence. 

“You have to have confidence in yourself,” Jenkins said. “No one can jump right in and be perfect at this job.” 

That lesson has stayed with her. The goal may be perfection, especially in aerospace, but getting there is a process. Jenkins has learned to see growth not as proof that she lacks ability, but as evidence that she is continuing to build it. 

More than a degree

For Jenkins, CMU Online was not just a way to earn a degree. It was part of building the life she wanted for herself and her son. 

Rowan is proud of what his mom does. Jenkins sees her education as part of becoming a better provider for him, but also as a step toward something bigger. 

Her long-term goal is to become a soft goods designer in aerospace. She wants to move beyond working on someone else’s designs and begin bringing her own ideas to life. 

“The world doesn’t need another T-shirt designer,” she said. “I want to do something that means more than that. I am capable of more, and I want to see what I’m really capable of.” 

That drive has carried her from military service to motherhood, from technical work to fashion coursework, from homework after bedtime to spacesuit production in Houston. 

“Falanne’s work on the Axiom spacesuit is remarkable, but what makes her story so meaningful is the path she took to get there,” said Vice President Patrick, “CMU students dream big, and we help them knock down the barriers that get in the way of those dreams.” 

Falanne Jenkins knows what it feels like to be told no. She also knows what can happen when you refuse to let that answer define your future. 

“I was told no, but I didn’t take that answer,” Jenkins said. “I wanted something bigger for myself and my son. I’m proud of myself, and I know my son is too.” 

When Falanne Jenkins left the Navy in 2017, she never would have imagined herself sewing spacesuits. Now, stitch by stitch, she is helping build what comes next for astronauts headed to the Moon, for her son and for herself.