The European Space Agency and The Pokémon Company International announced a limited-time partnership built around World Space Week, which runs from October 4 to October 10, 2026. The two organizations said the collaboration brings together audiences that share a taste for curiosity, exploration and imagination, with the specifics of the activities to be revealed closer to the event.
Anne-Sophie Bradelle, head of ESA’s communication department, said the collaboration lets the agency connect broad audiences with space through creative storytelling and supports the ambition set out in ESA’s Strategy 2040 to inspire Europe, especially young people and future generations. ESA frames the partnership as a bridge between space, science and storytelling, aimed at exciting young audiences and fans around the world. The agency’s announcement ends with a nudge for fans to get their Pokédexes ready, and suggests they fasten their space helmets as more details arrive.
World Space Week is the United Nations’ annual celebration of science, technology and space, established in 1999 to inspire and inform people about jobs in science and to get them excited about space. Last year’s edition drew 50,000 events across 102 nations, according to the BBC, with activities typically organized by space agencies, aerospace companies, planetariums, museums and schools. ESA’s own release frames the appeal in terms of shared values: space has long inspired people to look beyond the horizon, it argues, while Pokémon has invited fans to discover, learn and explore through play for generations. Both worlds, the release says, are united by curiosity: whether discovery runs through science or imagination, it begins with curiosity.
The Pokémon Company International manages the Pokémon property outside Asia, including brand management, licensing, the trading card game, the animated television series, home entertainment and the official website. The franchise launched in Japan in 1996. ESA, founded in 1975 as an intergovernmental organization, counts 23 member states and works with the European Union on the Galileo navigation and Copernicus Earth observation programs, and with Eumetsat on meteorological missions. Canada takes part in some ESA programs under a cooperation agreement.
Neither organization has said what the collaboration will involve. ESA describes it as a unique, limited-time effort and promises further details soon, a message echoed in the BBC’s reporting, which notes more information will be announced nearer the time. Both partners describe a shared ambition of encouraging new generations to explore and experiment, through science or imagination alike. For ESA, the tie-up sits within a broader outreach push: the agency describes itself as Europe’s gateway to space, and its release argues that decades of space exploration have given it a story of discovery to share with people on Earth, one that Pokémon’s global audience can help carry to younger fans.
Sources
- ESA press release: https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Branding_and_Partnerships/ESA_and_Pokemon_team_up_to_celebrate_World_Space_Week
- BBC Newsround: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c4gjp3geq89o