Hollow polyimide shells, to be used in inertial confinement fusion experiments, were fabricated by codepositing monomer precursors onto spherical mandrels. Polyimide shells with 700 to 950 μm diameters and 4 to 13 μm wall thicknesses were produced. The shell wall shrunk 20–30% due to imidization. Burst and buckle pressure tests on these shells yielded estimated mechanical strength properties: ∼ 15 GPa elastic modulus and ∼ 300 MPa tensile strength. The permeability of D2 through polyamic acid at 298 K was 7.4 × 10−17 mol · m/m2 · Pa · s and increased to 6.4 × 10−16 mol · m/m2 · Pa · s upon curing the shell to 150 °C. The permeability of D2 at 298 K through vapor-deposited polyimide flat films was 240 times greater than through polyamic acid.