The Best Space Halloween Costumes in 2026

The orange jumpsuit at your door on October 31 is a real suit. Shuttle crews wore it for launch and landing, and it is orange so a rescue crew can find you in the water. The white puffy one with the gold visor is the spacewalk suit hanging in the station’s airlock right now. That’s what makes this the best costume in the neighborhood: a kid in a decent astronaut suit is dressed as a real person with a real job, not a cartoon.

Below are the suits and helmets I would actually buy, by age, and a make-your-own spacesuit that costs about $35 and beats most of what hangs in the seasonal aisle. Every buying pick is a specific product, checked this week; the prices are ranges because costume prices swing hardest in the last two weeks of October.

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Our picks at a glance

The picks at a glance

Every pick, who it fits, and what it costs. Detail on each follows.

Which real suit are you copying?

This is the part that turns a costume into a conversation. NASA has flown three looks that costumes copy, and the color tells you which.

Orange: the launch-and-entry suit. Shuttle crews wore the bright orange pressure suit for liftoff and landing, the two moments when something might go wrong fast. The color is international orange, chosen so a search crew could find an astronaut floating in the ocean. It is the suit in the photo at the top of this page, and it is the one most orange costumes copy, patches and all.

White with a gold visor: the spacewalk suit. The bulky white suit with the backpack is the EMU, the one astronauts wear outside the station. White reflects the Sun; the gold on the visor is a real film of gold that cuts the glare. The backpack is the life support, which is why a homemade version needs a box on the back to look right.

White with the big round helmet: Apollo. The Moon suits were white too, but the helmet was a clear bubble with a separate gold visor that flipped down over it, and the boots were huge. If your kid wants to be Buzz Aldrin, that is the look, and it is the easiest of the three to build at home.

Astronaut costumes for kids

Aeromax Jr. Astronaut Suit (around $60–70). This is the one to buy if the costume is going to be worn past Halloween, and with this one it will be. It is a real fabric jumpsuit with a full-length zipper, working pockets, embroidered NASA and flag patches sewn on rather than printed, and an embroidered cap in the box. It comes in white or orange and is sized like clothing, from 2/3 up to 12/14, so it fits instead of bunching at the ankles. Aeromax has made this suit for years and it is the one I see on kids at space museums. It is machine washable, which matters by November 1. Check price ▸

The cap, not a helmet, is the tradeoff. Real astronauts wear a cap like that around the launch site, so it is accurate, but a kid who wants a helmet needs one of the two Aeromax helmets below, and at that point you are near $90 for the pair. Worth it for a child who is going to live in the suit; not for a one-night wear.

Spooktacular Creations Astronaut Costume with Helmet (around $45–56). The complete-in-one-box pick. A white polyester jumpsuit with embroidered patches, plus a soft helmet with a tinted visor that moves, in sizes from 3T through XL (3 to 14 years). It is thinner than the Aeromax suit and it is a costume rather than clothing, but it looks right at the door, it comes with the helmet, and it costs less than the Aeromax suit alone. There is an orange version if the shuttle look is the point. Sponge-wash only, so this is the trick-or-treat suit rather than the every-weekend one. One note on where the link goes: on September 21 the white set was out of stock on Amazon, so our link goes to Spooktacular’s own store, where every size was in stock at $55.99. Check price ▸

Sizing, for either suit: buy for height, not age, and go up if you are between sizes. A jumpsuit that is a little long rolls at the cuff; one that is short cannot be fixed, and a kid who has to shuffle in it will take it off by the third house.

Astronaut costumes for adults

Aeromax Adult Astronaut Suit (around $65–90). The grown-up version of the kids’ suit, and the best-looking adult astronaut costume I know of under $100: a heavy poly-cotton jumpsuit, full front zipper, zippered pockets, sewn patches including the commander patch, and the embroidered cap. Aeromax sells it in adult Small and Large only, so check the size chart against your height before you order, and know that Large is a big suit. One note on color: when I checked Amazon on September 21, the white suit was in stock and both orange sizes were not. White is the training look and it is what our link goes to; if you want the orange launch suit, Aeromax sells it direct at $89 on its own store. Either one is the costume you can also wear to a launch-viewing trip without feeling silly. Check price ▸

Morph Men’s Orange Astronaut Costume (around $45–56). The answer if you want orange, or if neither Aeromax size fits you. It comes in Small through XXL, all five in stock on Amazon at $44.95 when I checked on October 6 ($55.95 on Morph’s own store). It’s a costume rather than a suit: lined polyester with padded shoulders and woven NASA-style badges, no cap or helmet, and hand wash only. The one complaint that keeps coming up in reviews is fit. It runs big and baggy, so between sizes, go down. On an astronaut that bagginess mostly reads as a pressure suit. Check price ▸

Spooktacular Creations Inflatable Astronaut (around $50–60). The funny one. A small fan in the suit inflates a puffy, six-foot spacewalk-shaped silhouette around you; the Amazon listing bundles a pair of gloves and a small LED. It runs on four AA batteries you supply (or a power bank), and the fan hums, which is fine at a party and gets old on a long walk. Buy it for the party, the office, or the parent who walks the kids; there is also a Medium for ages 7 to 10 if a child wants the same gag. Do not buy it for a small kid or for anyone who has to get through doorways gracefully. Check price ▸

Astronaut helmets, and the one thing to check first

The thing to check is whether the kid can see out of it sideways. A helmet with a small face opening turns a crossing at dusk into a guess, which is why every helmet here has a visor that lifts and a wide opening. My rule for trick-or-treating: visor up between houses, down for the photo.

Aeromax Youth Astronaut Helmet (around $25–30), ages 3–10. The right helmet for a small kid: light, padded inside, a visor that moves, NASA and flag decals, and an opening big enough that a preschooler can see and breathe. It comes in white, orange, silver, and pink. It is the helmet to put on top of the Aeromax suit, or on top of the homemade suit below. Check price ▸

Aeromax Jr. Astronaut Helmet with Sounds (around $40–58), ages 8 to adult. The bigger, better-built helmet: a spring-loaded visor that snaps up and down, a mock boom microphone, and a sound chip that plays a countdown and a launch. It fits older kids and adults, so it is also the helmet I would pair with the adult Aeromax suit. Heavier than the youth helmet at about three pounds, which is the reason it is not the pick for the under-8s. Check price ▸

Fun Costumes Gold Astronaut Helmet (around $45–50). A light one-piece polypropylene helmet in gold, with a smoky visor that moves up and down, vent holes so it breathes, and a foam piece inside to seat it, sized for most adults and teens 14 and up. Fun Costumes makes it themselves and sells it on Amazon under their own name, which is more than most costume helmets can say. It is stylized rather than a replica, but a gold helmet on a white suit reads as a spacewalk from across the room, and it is the one adult helmet on this page that was actually in stock the day I checked. Their plain white adult helmet was sold out both on Amazon and on their own site, so I have not linked it. Check price ▸

Make your own spacesuit for about $35

The Apollo look is the one to build, because a real Moon suit was a white coverall with a backpack, big boots, and patches in three places. Three purchases and an afternoon get you there, and the result looks more like the real thing than most $30 packaged costumes do.

1. The suit: a white Tyvek coverall (around $9–15). The painters’ coverall from DuPont is the classic base and the reason this costume is cheap: it is already white, already one-piece, zips up the front, and has elastic at the wrists. It is sold by the each in adult sizes; buy one size up so it blouses like a pressure suit instead of hanging like pajamas. For a kid, a white sweatsuit does the same job and is warmer. Check price ▸
2. The patches: a NASA astronaut set (around $10–13). The three-piece set is the flag, the blue NASA logo, and the red-and-white one, with iron-on backing. Put the flag on the left shoulder and the NASA logo on the left chest, the way the real suits wear them; a name tag over the right chest is the detail that makes people smile. Tyvek does not take an iron well, so glue or safety-pin them onto a Tyvek suit and iron them only onto a sweatsuit. Check price ▸
3. The metal: one roll of chrome duct tape (around $8–13). Wrap two bands around each wrist, each ankle, and the waist for the metal rings a real suit has at every joint, tape a band around a pair of white or gray gloves, and run a strip down the front zipper. One 15-yard roll does a suit and the backpack with tape to spare. Cut it with scissors on a board; tearing it by hand frays the edge. Check price ▸
4. The backpack: a cereal box. Wrap a large cereal box in white paper or white duct tape, add a strip or two of the chrome, and run two white straps (ribbon, an old belt, or more tape) over the shoulders. This is the life-support pack and it is what makes the silhouette read as a spacesuit rather than a painter.
5. Boots and gloves. White rain boots or sneakers wrapped in chrome tape; white gardening gloves or dishwashing gloves for the hands. Real suit gloves are gray and lumpy, so a cheap pair of gray work gloves is the most accurate choice.
6. The helmet. Buy this one. A fishbowl on a child’s head is the part of every DIY tutorial I would skip, because a plastic bowl fogs, muffles hearing, and does not come off fast. The Aeromax youth helmet above is $25, it is padded, and its visor opens; a white bike helmet plus a sweatband under it does the job for an older kid who already owns one.

Total, with the helmet bought separately: about $30–40 for the suit, patches and tape, and the whole thing goes together in an afternoon. It also photographs better than the packaged version, because the Tyvek is dead white and the patches are real.

Not an astronaut: planets and aliens

Half the fun of a space theme is that the astronaut is only one of the characters. The other two that work at the door are the alien and the planet, and both have one pick that is clearly better made than the rest of the aisle.

Rubie’s Alien Costume, Opus Collection (around $25–32). The green, big-eyed alien of every cartoon, done by the company that has made costumes since the 1950s: a hooded robe, a mask and a pair of gloves in one box, sized Small to Large and sold by Amazon itself. The mask is the thing to think about. It covers more of the face than a helmet with a visor does, so the same rule applies, mask up between houses. Size by Rubie’s own chart rather than the child’s clothing size; their sizes run small. Check price ▸

Morph Inflatable Alien Abduction (around $50–55). The gag where a green alien appears to be carrying you off, your own legs dangling from its arms. A fan inflates it in under a minute and the maker rates a set of four AA batteries at up to four hours, which covers a party. It is the adult answer when the astronaut inflatable is already taken, and it has every inflatable’s problems with doorways and car seats. Check price ▸

Fun Costumes Kid’s Planet Saturn (around $40–50). Of all the planet costumes, Saturn is the one people recognize from thirty feet, and this is the well-made version: a printed velour tunic shaped like the planet, with stiffened felt rings sewn at the waist, hook-and-loop at the shoulders so it goes on over a dark sweatsuit in seconds, made by the costume house itself. There is a toddler version too. The rings are wide, which is the whole point and also the thing to plan around in a car. Add a sibling as the Sun or the Moon and you have a solar system walking down the street. Check price ▸

If the kid wants to be Mars, Jupiter or Pluto instead, the answer is the DIY route: a solid-color sweatsuit in the planet’s color and a foam ring or a painted cardboard disc. Our planet guides have the reference photos; Jupiter’s bands and the Red Spot are an afternoon with fabric paint.

Three safety notes for the night itself

Visibility. A white suit is the most visible thing on the street at night, which is a real point in the costume’s favor. An orange one is nearly as good. Add a strip of reflective tape at the ankles on any suit for a kid walking in the road.

Flame. Tyvek is not flame-resistant, and neither are most polyester costumes; keep the homemade suit away from candles, fire pits and the jack-o’-lantern on the step. The packaged costumes here state their safety-standard compliance on the label; the homemade one has no label, so you are the label.

The helmet and the road. Visor up between houses so the kid can hear a car, and no helmet at all on a child under three, who needs peripheral vision more than the look. Every helmet on this page comes off in one motion; a taped-on bowl does not.

What to skip

The $20 vinyl “spacesuit” with the patches printed on rather than sewn, which tears at the first zipper pull and looks like a rain poncho by the second house. Any helmet without a visor that opens, for anyone under ten. Adult suits with a plastic “helmet collar” sewn to the neck, which looks like a bib in photos. And the fishbowl-as-helmet trick from the DIY sites, for the reasons above.

The bottom line

For a kid who is going to keep wearing it, the Aeromax Jr. Astronaut Suit plus the Aeromax youth helmet is the pair. For one night, done right, the Spooktacular Creations set has the helmet in the box. Adults get the Aeromax orange suit or the inflatable, depending on how the evening is going. And if you have an afternoon, the Tyvek suit with real patches is the costume people ask about.

Shopping for the rest of the year? See our space gifts for kids and gifts for space enthusiasts. And for what the people who actually fly get to wear, read what space tourists wear.