A wreck can start melting down while a traveller tears valuable metal from its hull in No Man’s Sky Cosmos. Hello Games launched the update on PS5 on September 9, with Sean Murray confirming a free download for existing PlayStation players. The space overhaul adds salvage sites, orbital construction and station ownership to No Man’s Sky as it marks ten years since launch. What happens when the space between planets becomes somewhere to stay? [1]
No Man’s Sky Cosmos Maps Space
The Quick Menu now opens a local star system map, showing celestial bodies, the station and destinations scattered through deep space. There is more to chart. Rocky and icy asteroid belts join debris fields, inhabited outposts, infested facilities and space hulks (large wrecks that players can dismantle), giving a journey through a system several possible stops before the next planetary landing. [1, 2]
The map has a progression requirement. Deep-space points of interest start appearing after a save first reaches the Space Anomaly, and a light tutorial mission called Signals introduces navigation around them. Outposts offer maps and salvage contracts through an alien quartermaster and a delivery terminal, so a newly discovered location can supply materials, another job or information about what lies farther out. The next stop might begin there. [2]
Murray says space itself has remained largely unchanged across the game’s decade of updates, and Hello Games designed Cosmos to fill it with more activity. The new map also marks the system’s star or stars as destinations that travellers can attempt to reach, although his announcement describes the journey as dangerous. A closer destination carries a different risk: how much can a scavenger remove before a wreck gives way? [1, 2]
Salvage Before the Hull Breaks
Space hulks put valuable cargo inside something that can explode. Using the Gravitino Coil (the physics tool for manipulating objects), travellers can pull metal from a wreck and send it towards a ship’s new Tractor Beam. The patch notes identify that beam as a Corvette utility part sold at the Corvette Workshop in stations. Cargo enters the Corvette’s hold. Meanwhile, damage to the hulk’s structural integrity can trigger a meltdown, making the choice of what to grab first part of the salvage operation. Murray recommends scanning for the highest-value rewards before dismantling too much of the structure. The wreck’s condition can turn further scavenging into a gamble. [1, 2]
The wreck can explode. The patch notes also add more dramatic music when a hulk begins to lose structural integrity. [2]
Outposts give salvagers somewhere to take their haul. They process comet dust, gelatinous fibres and contaminated metal into goods for the Galactic Trade Network or supplies for station construction, although biological hazards can make some facilities dangerous to enter. Spacewalking changes too. Hello Games adds full movement and roll (rotation around the body’s length), introduces an eject option for non-Corvette starships, and makes space explosions knock travellers back. Cold protection drains during a spacewalk unless nearby hazards change the conditions. [1, 2]
Stations Become Places to Build
A rare large asteroid can now serve as a landing site and the foundation for a base. Empty space works too. No Man’s Sky Cosmos lets players construct free-floating modular bases, with new corridor parts for orbital builds and station decorations available through the Space Anomaly’s Construction Research Terminal. Murray suggests a starship stop, an orbital restaurant or a military outpost as possibilities for builders. Those are creative examples; the underlying addition is the ability to place a base in space. [1, 2]
Players can also take over an existing system station. Murray describes buying the station, while the accompanying patch notes say prospective directors must prove themselves to local authorities to gain control. Neither account in the available material gives a purchase price or a complete acquisition walkthrough. Once in charge, directors can change exterior decorations, rearrange the interior and expand the main hangar with additional rooms, using existing base parts to furnish the space. [1, 2]
GamesRadar reports that Hello Games considers station ownership among its most requested additions since launch. A customised station can serve as a clubhouse for visiting friends, with the owner choosing its appearance inside and out. But the new role extends beyond decorating a single hangar. Once a director has a station, who else can join them there? [1, 3]
Alliances Connect the Stations
Station directors can found alliances, and other travellers can join by visiting a station that an alliance owns. Each player can belong to up to three alliances. Teleporters provide quick access to alliance systems, while the station core displays a leaderboard for the largest and most active groups. The patch notes say member activity determines alliance grades. Individual stations can therefore become stops in a network that players organise and expand together across different systems. [2]
Murray describes groups competing to become larger, richer or more prominent through linked stations. The leaderboard supplies a shared target. In GamesRadar’s account of the overview video, Murray discusses alliances containing tens of thousands of players, a description of the developer’s stated scale rather than a verified count of people already participating in one group. The supplied coverage offers no independent test of that scale. [1, 3, 4]
Murray also brings Light No Fire into the Cosmos overview video. According to GamesRadar, he says Hello Games can test and refine technology here that he hopes players will experience in its other game, without specifying which systems will carry over. The alliance details remain open. For now, No Man’s Sky Cosmos gives station owners a way to form groups, while another addition sends those players back through the game’s own history. [4]
Ten Years Become an Expedition
Hello Games calls its anniversary expedition Our Journey Continues. The patch notes list it as Expedition Twenty-Three, due to begin shortly and run for approximately six weeks. Murray supplies the commentary. Each milestone revisits an earlier update through gameplay based on the features it introduced, with accompanying accounts of how those additions came together over the game’s first decade. Once unlocked, the commentary remains available in the Catalogue’s Collected Knowledge section. Players can return to those recordings later. [1, 2]
Rewards draw on that history too. They include a golden version of the original Rasamama 36 starship, commemorative artwork, an astronaut bobblehead and the Starbound v0.27 multi-tool, alongside a vintage Interceptor and a diplodocus pet inspired by early trailers. The expedition’s start remains separate from the update’s release. Murray confirms No Man’s Sky Cosmos is available on PS5 on September 9; the supplied expedition notes give an approximate duration and say it will begin shortly, without specifying its opening date. [1, 2]
- PRESS RELEASE Murray, S. (2026, September 9). Introducing No Man’s Sky: Cosmos update, live on PS5 today. PlayStation.Blog. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Brian. (2026, September 9). No Man’s Sky 7.0 ‘Cosmos’ update announced, patch notes. Nintendo Everything. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Wood, A. (2026, September 9). No Man’s Sky Cosmos update says screw it, build your own space station and destroy ‘space hulks’ with a gravity gun: ‘Our most requested feature since launch’. GamesRadar+. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Wood, A. (2026, September 9). Light No Fire shows signs of life: Hello Games says No Man’s Sky Cosmos update uses shared tech, teases ‘alliances of tens of thousands of players’. GamesRadar+. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS No Man’s Sky ‘COSMOS’ update now available. (n.d.). Gematsu. [RSS summary only; full article unavailable and not used to substantiate claims.] [Article Link]
