A World Space Week Pokémon × ESA Collaboration Has Launched

The world is currently celebrating World Space Week. And as part of that celebration, The Pokémon Company and the European Space Agency (ESA) are launching the main part of their World Space Week collaboration: the Field Research and Wild Encounters Pokémon GO gameplay. Both gameplay events span from October 4 to October 10 at participating European museums.

During the Field Research event, Pokémon GO players who spin PokéStops at the collaboration museums will trigger World Space Week event-themed Field Research tasks. Upon completing those tasks, players will be rewarded with event-themed Pokémon; some will include special backgrounds. The Wild Encounter event increases a player’s chance of encountering select Pokémon in the skies around partner museums. These Pokémon include:

• Pikachu
• Blipbug
• Clefairy
• Elgyem
• Lunatone
• Magnemite
• Solrock
• Starmie

Participating collaboration museums include:

• ESA HQ (Paris, France)
• ESA ECSAT (Harwell, UK)
• ESA ESAC (Madrid, Spain)
• ESA ESEC (Redu, Belgium)
• ESA ESRIN (Frascati, Italy)
• ESA ESOC (Darmstadt, Germany)
• ESA ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands)

Other participating museums include:

• Cité de l’espace – Toulouse, France
• Deutsches Museum – Nuremberg, Germany
• Euro Space Center – Transinne, Belgium
• Museu de les Ciències – València, Spain
• Science Museum – London, England
• Space Expo – Noordwijk, Netherlands

The Pokémon Company had previously announced the collaboration. It also features a longer-running Raids gameplay. That event will take place at collaborating museums from October 4, 2026, to April 30, 2027. Players who complete the Raids will have the chance to catch Astronaut Pikachu. Earlier this year, Pikachu spent 67 days onboard the International Space Station. French astronaut Sophie Adenot took the Pikachu plush to space. Pikachu completed over 1000 orbits in that time.

World Space Week is an annual celebration of space exploration that runs between October 4 and 10. The United Nations inaugurated World Space Week in 1999 to celebrate the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and the Outer Space Treaty of October 10, 1967. This year’s theme is “Rocket Revolution,” which highlights the technologies that took humans to space.

Source: Pokémon GO’s Official Website
Source: Space.com
Source: Star Walk