Europe's space agency ESA has teamed up with Pokemon to release a video showing “astronaut Pikachu” introducing the inside of the International Space Station (ISS).

On Oct. 8, Japanese IT outlet Gigazine reported that ESA posted a video tour of the ISS featuring a Pikachu plush on its official YouTube channel to mark World Space Week from Oct. 4 to 10. ESA and The Pokemon Company International announced their collaboration plans in August and then unveiled astronaut Pikachu and a European exhibition and merchandise programme in September.

The video stars a specially made Pikachu plush that ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot (소피 아데노) took to the ISS. Pikachu stayed in space for 67 days from April 11 to June 17 and orbited Earth about 1,040 times. Adenot left for the ISS on Feb. 13 and is carrying out the roughly nine-month “Epsilon” mission.

In the video, Pikachu floats through the ISS in microgravity and introduces key facilities. The first stop is Node 1 (Unity). Crew members can obtain drinking water there, and the ISS life support system recovers moisture from urine, sweat and respiration to recycle about 98 percent of all water.

Low-temperature storage facilities used for scientific experiments also appear. The equipment is used to freeze and store astronauts’ blood or urine and other life-science samples, bring them back to Earth and analyse them. Later in the video, Node 2 (Harmony), which connects to the crew living quarters, is also introduced.

Adenot said, “I hope you enjoy the ISS tour with Pikachu,” adding, “It is a pity that Pikachu will return to Earth before I do.” ESA explained that the collaboration aims to encourage children and younger generations to take an interest in space science and exploration.