United States – October 23, 2026 -- Procter & Gamble's Febreze Unstopables Touch Fabric Spray is the first P&G product to incorporate materials based on the company's space-based research, sponsored by the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory. P&G household products are used every day by more than 4 billion people worldwide, more than half the Earth's population.
Touch-activated scent release is the first commercial output of P&G's ISS work
The latest Febreze formulation features touch-activated scent release technology. It contains microscopic capsules of perfume suspended in a liquid that, according to P&G researcher Matt Lynch, looks and feels like water. The capsules release a small burst of fragrance when a hand is rubbed on a sprayed surface or someone walks over it, countering unpleasant odors.
Microgravity research targets the separation problem in colloid products
Many P&G products, from shampoos and detergents to medicines, are colloids: tiny particles suspended in a liquid. P&G has teamed up with the ISS National Lab and NASA to study how these mixtures behave in space.
On Earth, gravity makes some particles sink and others rise. In microgravity, this buoyancy-driven movement is reduced, which lets researchers isolate the forces acting between particles.
For the Febreze spray, the engineering challenge was keeping the capsules suspended while the product sits on store shelves. Lynch noted that most dispersed-particle products separate over time, "like salad dressing." Sending the mixtures to the ISS let the team examine the system particle by particle and design the structures accordingly.
P&G expects more of its largest brands to draw on space-based research
Lynch said more of P&G's biggest brands could benefit from ISS research in the future. The Febreze spray is the only P&G product so far that has directly benefitted from work on the station.