PARIS — The European Space Agency this week released footage of a historic scientific mission: a guided tour of the International Space Station given to Pikachu, the yellow electric mouse who has been commercially important in Japan since 1996 and is now, briefly, important in orbit.

The plush, dressed in a custom-made ESA flight suit with a specially designed covering for its tail, traveled aboard the station with French astronaut Sophie Adenot as part of a partnership between ESA and The Pokémon Company International marking World Space Week. In the video, the creature drifts serenely through the module, rotating slowly, while the astronaut narrates. It is the most composed performance any delegation has given in that corridor.

Critics have asked what the plush contributed to science. The question misunderstands the mission. Pikachu did not come to conduct experiments. Pikachu came to be seen conducting them, which is a different and, in the current funding environment, more valuable function. A billion children watched a mouse float. A generation of engineers will cite the mouse. The budget line for the tour was, by all accounts, modest, and the return on it is a continent.

"We put a cartoon in space and Europe's children suddenly know what an orbital module is. NASA has spent sixty years and billions trying to do that with flags."

The tour itself was thorough. Pikachu was guided past the exercise equipment, the sleeping quarters, and the window with the view of Earth, where it hovered for a long moment, or appeared to, which in zero gravity is the same thing. Japanese officials praised the collaboration as a milestone in European-Asian friendship. French officials praised it as a milestone in French space leadership. Both are correct, because the mouse belongs to everyone now.

THE PIKACHU FLIGHT PLAN: OFFICIAL HIGHLIGHTS

  • Suit: Custom ESA flight suit, tail accommodation engineered specifically for the character’s silhouette
  • Duration: Multiple days in low-Earth orbit, the longest competitive Pokémon career in history
  • Notable maneuver: Slow rotation near a ventilation fan, widely interpreted as the creature “doing a thing”
  • Return: The plush remains in orbit, where it will continue touring indefinitely, having retired from Earth

At press time, Belgium had formally requested its own plush for the next mission, and Russia had announced it was considering a character of its own, with the candidate list reportedly topped by a small bear in a helmet.