Agency
22/04/2026
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The results are in! Today is the day student teams find out if their code has achieved flight status for the European Astro Pi Challenge 2025/2026! The first batches of Mission Space Lab programs are scheduled to start running on the International Space Station (ISS) this week, with Mission zero programs scheduled for mid-May.
A selection of Mission Zero submissions
This year, Astro Pi Mission Control received an incredible 17,381 submissions for Mission Zero from 24,695 young people.
For Mission Space Lab, 404 teams took on the challenge of calculating the speed of the International Space Station. After rigorous testing and security checks by our team on the ground, we are delighted to announce that 387 teams have been awarded flight status.
In total, 25,707 young people will have their programs run in space in this special 10th anniversary year. Huge congratulations to everyone who passed testing — we can’t wait to see how your code performs 400km above Earth!
Who joined the mission in 2025/2026?
Sophie Adenot coding Mission Zero
Every year, we dive into our participation data to see how the Astro Pi community is growing. This helps us ensure we’re reaching young people everywhere across Europe, from classrooms to community coding hubs.
A key priority for us is gender balance in computing. Research shows fewer girls tend to pursue computing in later education stages; however, Astro Pi remains popular with girls. Participants identifying as female made up 44% of Mission Zero — a fantastic result that remains consistent with previous years.
We even had one very special participant! ESA Astronaut Sophie Adenot created her own entry for Mission Zero, re-imagining her Epsilon Mission patch in pixel art. Sophie will be aboard the ISS while your programs are running and will be recording a special video message for all our participants!
For the more complex challenge Mission Space Lab, 26% of participants identify as female. It highlights the importance of our ongoing work to support girls in transitioning from block-based coding to advanced Python. We know that as the complexity increases with age, the gender gap in STEM often widens. The average age for Mission Space Lab is 15 compared to 12 for Mission Zero. This data reinforces our mission to keep providing accessible, inspiring pathways for everyone.
Where is Astro Pi happening?
While the biggest percentage of student teams participating in Astro Pi are those from secondary schools (68% of Mission Space Lab and 50% of Mission Zero teams), we’ve seen an exciting boost in participation outside the school setting. This year, more young people than ever took part through Code Clubs, libraries, and youth centers.
Astro Pi across Europe
Young people participating at a Mission Zero event with ESERO Luxembourg
Many teachers and young people engaged in dedicated training and national events led by the national ESERO (European Space Education Resource Office).
“On November 14, 2025, we organised an exceptional event around the Astro Pi Mission Zero project, bringing together nearly 300 young participants to write a short computer program to display a personalised message on board the International Space Station (ISS). For a day, students discovered that coding could literally… send them to space!” – ESERO Luxembourg
“The Mission Zero workshops were a fantastic opportunity for our students to experience coding in a meaningful and inspiring context. It really helped bring computer science to life, and we’ve seen increased interest from students wanting to explore coding further.” – Ms Qureshi, Nene Park Academy Peterborough, UK
“The structured approach helped me guide our mentors on how to deliver it step by step. We started with the pitch deck and YouTube intro, then went to designing the 8×8 pixel art on paper, to finally translating the pixel art to Python code. Even students as young as nine were able to complete the project, and their excitement knowing their code could run in space was incredible to see.” – Kokia, Mentor, Canada
Next steps
Well done again to everyone who achieved flight status. Your code is about to leave Earth’s atmosphere and head into orbit!
Keep an eye on your inbox — we’ll be sending out official certificates for all participants in June 2026. Until then, stay curious!
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