The European Space Agency posted a video of a Pikachu plush touring the International Space Station with an astronaut, a Pokémon partnership timed to World Space Week 2026.
The toy did not hitch a short photo op. It rode along for 67 days. UPI reported that the European Space Agency shared the clip to its YouTube account, showing the plush in an astronaut costume moving through the station with astronaut Sophie Adenot.
The visit ran from April 11 to June 17. ESA framed the release around World Space Week 2026, which began the Sunday before the Oct. 7 write-up, and folded it into a broader deal with The Pokémon Company.
That deal is not a one-off gag. It pairs the agency with a global entertainment brand for a temporary exhibition at ESA sites and major museums across Europe, exclusive merchandise, and special events inside the mobile game Pokémon Go.
The video is a guided walk-through, not a silent float reel. Adenot takes the costumed plush past the systems that keep a crew alive hundreds of miles up.
She stops at the water system and puts the recovery rate in plain terms.
"We recycle 98% of our water,"
Then she adds the detail that lands with anyone who has never thought about plumbing in orbit.
"That's pretty amazing. Even the urine is recycled."
The tour also hits the station freezers, which drop to -98 degrees Celsius, or -144.4 Fahrenheit. Crews use them for blood draws and other scientific work. The clip ends in the crew quarters.
ESA had already announced the partnership with The Pokémon Company International before the video went up. The pitch is simple: tie a familiar character to real hardware, real recycling rates, and real cold-storage science, then put the show on the road at agency sites and big European museums.
Pikachu is the yellow mascot kids have known for decades. Pairing that face with an actual astronaut on the International Space Station is how a space agency tries to reach people who will never read a technical paper. The merchandise and Pokémon Go events are the commercial half of the same bet.
None of that replaces the engineering. The 98% water recycle figure, the deep freezers, and a 67-day stay on orbit are the substance under the costume. The plush is the hook.
Public agencies chase attention because attention is scarce. When they do it by putting a cartoon mascot next to working life-support gear, taxpayers at least get a clear look at what the station actually does.
Space still sells wonder when the demo is honest. A stuffed Pikachu floating past a urine recycler is odd. It is also a cleaner civics lesson than most of what fills the news cycle back on the ground.
