The Pokémon Company and European Space Agency (ESA) have announced a new collaboration to celebrate World Space Week (4th -10th October).

As part of the collab, a special Pikachu plush was sent up to the International Space Station for a total of 67 days, from 11th April to 27th June 2026, completing 1040 orbits. We’ve yet to receive our own comment from Pikachu, but word on the street is it said something along the lines of being “connected to life” and “connect to love”, so yeah, you do you, Pikachu.

The collab will see temporary exhibitions go live across ESA sites and museums across Europe, designed to inspire curiosity for space exploration among audiences of all ages. There will also be a special Pokémon GO event for those still invested in Scopely’s mobile game.

The ESA sites included in the collab are as follows:

• ESA Headquarters, Paris, France: 19-20 September 2026
• ESRIN, Rome, Italy: 25 September 2026
• ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands: 26–27 September 2026
• ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany: 2 October 2026
• ESAC, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain: 3 October 2026
• ECSAT, Harwell, United Kingdom: 10 October 2026

Following this, museum exhibitions will also take place from early October 2026 to April 2027 at the following locations:

• Cité de l’espace, Toulouse, France
• Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia, Spain
• Deutsches Museum, Nuremberg, Germany
• Euro Space Center, Libin, Belgium
• Lucca Comics & Games, Lucca, Italy
• Science Museum, London, United Kingdom
• Space Expo, Noordwijk, Netherlands