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Editorial Team · 2026-10-08
Astronaut Pikachu Debuts in Pokémon GO for World Space Week
By Editorial Team · published 2026-10-04 · updated 2026-10-05
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Pokémon GO's World Space Week event went live on October 4 and runs to October 10, local time. A new costumed Pokémon debuts with it: Astronaut Pikachu, in one-star raids and in free Timed Research, with a shiny version in the pool. A separate strand of the event runs in European museums until next April.
What was announced
Niantic announced the event on the game's own news page, and it opened at 12:00 a.m. local time on October 4 and closes at 11:59 p.m. on October 10. The headline is a costume debut: Astronaut Pikachu arrives in one-star raids and in Timed Research, and a shiny version can appear.
The Timed Research is free for everyone and ends later than the event itself. Tasks must be completed and rewards claimed by 11:59 p.m. on October 12 — two extra days, but the research disappears after that, not the day the raids stop.
The second half is physical and much longer. Niantic confirmed on September 19 that Pokémon GO is working with the European Space Agency: from October 4 to April 30, 2027, six science and space museums carry their own in-game content. The list is the Science Museum in London, the Cité de l'espace in Toulouse, the Deutsches Museum in Nuremberg, the Museu de les Ciències in Valencia, Space Expo in Noordwijk and the Euro Space Center in Transinne.
At those venues Astronaut Pikachu appears in one-star raids you have to attend in person, and catching it there grants a special Location Background that records the visit. Seven ESA sites — the Paris headquarters, ESRIN near Rome, ESOC in Darmstadt, ESAC near Madrid, ESTEC in Noordwijk, ESEC near Redu and ECSAT at Harwell — run the same gameplay from October 4 to 10, without the Location Backgrounds.
What it means for players
For most trainers this is a one-week costume hunt with a soft deadline. One-star raids are cheap and easy to clear solo, the research is free, and the shiny rate is the only thing worth planning around.
If you are anywhere near the museums, the calculation changes. The Location Background is the rarer prize here: it marks the catch permanently, it cannot be bought, and it only exists while you stand in the building. The museum research stays open until the end of April, so that part can wait for a trip; the Field Research and the boosted wild spawns cannot.
Those spawns are the quiet reason to play this week near a participating site: Pikachu, Clefairy, Magnemite, Starmie, Lunatone, Solrock, Elgyem and Blipbug all appear more often from October 4 to 10, and each of the first seven can be shiny.
What happens next
October 10 ends the raids, the Field Research and the boosted spawns. October 12 is the real cut-off, because unclaimed Timed Research rewards vanish with it.
After that the ESA strand keeps running quietly until April 30, 2027, which makes this the longest-dated collaboration in Pokémon GO right now. The sensible plan is to treat this week as the costume week and the museums as a trip to make any time before spring.
