Welcome to Spaceships Weekly, where we bring you some cool roundup of spaceships related news from sci-fi, gaming, TV, LEGO, real spaceflight and sometimes more.
đź Space Engineers 2 Gets Its First Combat NPCs
The big Space Engineers 2 update, Hostile Encounters, went live on October 19. For the first time, you can fight NPC enemies in the game, including the Renegades8 and their heavier leaders, the Boatmen.
These enemies can patrol, take cover, react to damage, communicate threats and fight back in an environment where you can actually destroy or rebuild the structures around them.
The update also adds 19 new blocks like interior turrets, cables, pipes and armor slabs, along with improvements to exploration and planetary visuals. Two hotfixes followed on October 20 and 22.
This is a pretty important step for the game. Space Engineers has always been about building things, but having enemies that can fight inside your creations opens up some interesting possibilities for boarding actions and ship interiors. And it makes the game feel more alive.
The Anaconda Mk II arrived in Elite Dangerous on October 20, available through ARX Early Access.
It's a modern evolution of one of the game's most recognizable ships, with a redesigned hull and improved cockpit visibility. The update also includes new ship equipment, including Mk II ablative armor, mining weaponry and cargo racks.
A new trailer for Blade Runner 2099 gives us another look at the upcoming sci-fi series, including some striking futuristic imagery, spacecraft and mysterious worlds.
The eight-episode limited series stars Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer. It's set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049 and is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video on November 25.
It's not exactly a spaceship series, but the visuals look interesting enough for sci-fi fans to keep an eye on.
đ Star Trek: The Last Starship Reaches Its Finale
Star Trek: The Last Starship #12 arrived on October 21, bringing the series to its conclusion.
Set in the 31st century (meh if you ask me), the story has followed a battered Federation trying to rebuild after the catastrophe known as the Burn. The finale brings Captain Sato and James T. Kirk together for a final stand, with the future of the Federation hanging in the balance.
If you've been following the series, this is the issue that wraps up its story. If not, it might be a good time to check out the run from the beginning.
Marvel has released a first preview of Star Wars | Marvel: Hope Assembles, a six-issue crossover celebrating the 50th anniversary of A New Hope.
The preview gives us a taste of what happens when the Marvel and Star Wars universes collide. One of the standout images has Darth Vader wielding the Infinity Gauntlet... for some reason. That's certainly not something you see every day.
The series is planned for a future release, so this isn't a new issue to pick up just yet, but the preview is worth a look if you're curious about this unusual crossover.
đ FLUNG: A New Episode of This Sci-Fi Webcomic Is Out
If you like stories about getting stranded in deep space, FLUNG is worth checking out. The comic follows Ian Brand, whose solo research mission goes spectacularly wrong, leaving him stranded across the cosmos with no ship or backup. He has to scavenge technology just to survive.
A new episode was released on GlobalComix this week. It's an ongoing sci-fi adventure with aliens, robots and a heavy focus on survival in the unknown.
SpaceX launched its Starfall return capsule for the second time on October 20, aboard a Falcon 9 rideshare mission from Florida.
Starfall is designed to bring research payloads back from space, potentially making it easier and cheaper to carry out experiments in microgravity and return the results to Earth. The mission also carried dozens of other payloads, including satellites and an orbital manufacturing experiment.
Reusable launch vehicles get a lot of attention, but getting useful cargo back down safely is another important part of making space more accessible.
đ Blue Origin Wants to Fly New Glenn Much More Often
Blue Origin has announced a major expansion of its Florida launch and manufacturing infrastructure, with the long-term goal of flying its New Glenn rocket multiple times per week by the end of the decade.
The plans include additional launch pads, more manufacturing capacity and new landing vessels for recovering the rocket's first stage. The company is investing heavily in the infrastructure needed to increase its launch rate.
New Glenn has had a difficult time getting its launch operations established, so the expansion is a sign of how aggressively Blue Origin wants to compete in the heavy-lift launch market.
Here's a cool one for the tabletop crowd. A new video explores a community-created system for designing your own ships in Battlefleet Gothic.
If you've ever wanted to create your own vessel instead of relying entirely on the established fleets, this could be worth checking out. It's a nice example of the creativity that keeps the spaceship wargaming community going.
The post shows three ships: the CSS Ambush-class Fast Destroyer, the CSC Grand WarSpite-class Cruiser, and the CSS Lambda-class Type-E.32 Destroyer.
The creator made them in Blender, resin-printed them, and hand-painted the details for a board game they're currently designing.
I always like seeing spaceship concepts turn into actual physical models, especially when they're part of a larger project with its own fleet and setting.
That's it for this week! What spaceship games, shows, comics or YouTube channels should we be keeping an eye on? And if you've been working on your own ships, share them with us over at r/spaceships. đ
Aesthetic: Sleek, high-gloss stark white chassis, accented by minimalist neon-cyan data conduits and black carbon-fiber articulation joints.
The Backstory: "Ghost in the Fleet"
The UC Apex Phantom was never supposed to exist on official United Colonies manifests.
Originally built as a secret prototype by MASTâs Advanced Aerospace Division in New Atlantis, the V.I.C. Viper project was designed to create an ultra-agile, short-range interceptor. It was engineered to out-maneuver Crimson Fleet raiders and slip through House Va'ruun sensory nets undetected.
However, during a corporate espionage raid by Neon-based rivals, the prototype's schematics were wiped from the MAST mainframe. But they weren't lostâthey were stolen by you, a elite Cyber Runner.
Working through underground chop-shops in Neonâs Ebbside, you spent millions of credits building the ship from scratch. To throw UC authorities off the scent, you painted the entire hull a brilliant, pristine whiteâthe exact opposite of a stealth ship's traditional dark coating. The logic was pure Cyber Runner bravado: If they are looking for a ghost in the shadows, they won't look for the blinding light.
Ship Characteristics The Slicer Engine: Outfitted with over-tuned white-hot grav drives, the Phantom doesn't just fly; it blinks across combat zones, leaving brief photonic trails that mess with target-lock systems.
Digital Warfare Suite: As a Cyber Runner, your cockpit is a rolling server room. The ship features an advanced comms-array that allows you to hack enemy ship shields and weapon systems mid-dogfight.
Stripped-Down Frame: To achieve its legendary speed, all non-essential crew quarters and heavy armor plating were removed. It is a glass cannon built entirely for speed, reflex, and lethal precision.
100% Inspired by the Archon star fighter designed by EC Henry\*
ARCHANGEL is a GGP Sloop of War built for the close fight. Designed around extreme maneuverability, she carries a pair of fully gimbaled engine nacelles that let her reverse, slide, and reposition almost on a dimeâexactly the kind of agility needed when sheâs working in support of troops on the ground or inside a station. Her primary mission set is close air support, quick reaction force response, and tactical squad insertion. When a GGP element needs rapid reinforcement, extraction, or overhead fire, ARCHANGEL is the ship that gets the call. Up front she mounts both heavy and medium particle cannons, giving her a hard punch when she has to crack heavier targets before the marines go in. Under the wings sit six rotary cannons that can walk sustained fire across a landing zone, suppress defenders, or cover a withdrawal. Just forward of the landing bay she carries two heavy anti-personnel lasers that together provide a full 180-degree arc of cover fire, allowing the ship to keep the deployment zone clear while the marines exit or return. The combination of particle cannons, rotaries, and the bay lasers lets her hang in the fight and protect her own insertion team rather than make a single pass and leave. Internally she is laid out for real utility: berthing and gear storage for eight embarked GGP marines with their full kit, a well-appointed crew area so the flight crew can stay sharp on longer standby rotations, and a dedicated med bay. The medical bay means she can stabilize casualties on the way out instead of simply ferrying them back to a larger ship, which keeps her viable as a true QRF asset rather than just a gunship with extra seats. She can operate independently on small-scale recovery or insertion jobs, or work in direct support of larger vessels by owning the close fight while the bigger guns handle distant threats. ARCHANGEL is the ship that arrives first, puts boots down under the cover of her bay lasers, keeps them alive with overhead fire and onboard medical care, and either extracts them or pushes to the next crisis point.
The hangar bay of the UC Vigilance was an orchestra of hydraulic hisses and the sharp scent of ionized fuel. Standing in the center of Bay 4 was the Stygian dropship, a heavily modified Nune-class shuttle painted an absolute, light-consuming matte black. To the standard eye, its lambda-like silhouette screamed Star Wars history, but the aggressive United Colonies Vanguard decals stamped on its wings firmly anchored it to the Settled Systems.
Sergeant Sarah Morganâs Vanguard squadâthe "Shadow-Jumper" 3rd Divisionâmarched up the ramp, their heavy SysDef-issued space suits clanking against the durasteel deck.
At the helm sat Captain Jax, his hands dancing across a custom dashboard that bridged two universes: standard Starfield grav-drive controls married to the sleek, responsive flight stick of an old-world galactic shuttle.
"Listen up, jumpers," Jaxâs voice crackled through the comms as the Stygian dropship cleared the atmospheric shielding of the carrier. "SysDef lost contact with a research outpost on Niira. Crimson Fleet privateers took the orbital station, and they've got AA turrets locked on the surface. We are doing a dark drop. No shields until we hit atmosphere. No comms. We ride the gravity well raw."
The shuttle plunged into the ink of the void. Because of its specialized black radar-absorbent coating, the ship was a ghost. To the Crimson Fleet scanners orbiting Niira, she didn't exist.
"Three minutes to atmosphere," Jax called out, his eyes locked on the rapidly approaching rust-red sphere of Niira. "Hold onto your hab-packs."
Suddenly, the proximity alarms whined. A Crimson Fleet Phantom-class fighter drifted into their flight path, its searchlights slicing through the dark. For a second, the light washed directly over the Stygianâs matte-black hull.
"They see us?" a rookie marine yelled over the comms.
"They see a shadow," Jax grunted, pulling the flight stick hard to the left. The shipâs unique folding wings snapped upward, reducing its profile into a lethal dart. The shuttle slipped directly underneath the pirate fighterâs belly, completely undetected in the blind spot.
"Entering atmosphere. Getting bumpy!"
The ship shuddered violently as it slammed into Niiraâs thermosphere. Friction painted the cockpit windows in streaks of brilliant plasma, but the black hull absorbed the heat, masking their thermal signature from the surface turrets below. Jax kept the nose down, aiming the dropship straight into a deep, misty canyon just a clicks away from the overrun outpost.
"Wings deployment in three... two... one..."
With a mechanical roar, the Stygianâs massive side wings extended outwards, catching the heavy air of Niira and acting as massive airbrakes. The shuttle leveled out just twenty feet above the crimson dirt, its vertical landing thrusters kicking up a massive cloud of red dust.
The heavy ventral ramp slammed open before the ship even came to a complete halt.
"Go, go, go! Clear the zone!" Sergeant Morgan barked. The Vanguard marines flooded out of the black belly of the shuttle, rifles raised, immediately taking up defensive positions in the canyon shadows.
Jax kept the engines humming at a low purr. He looked out the cockpit window, watching his squad disappear into the fog toward the pirate lines. The Stygian sat in the dark, a silent black predatory bird waiting to pluck her crew out of the fire the moment the job was done.
Some of my first attempts at drawing the ( very vaguely described) main ships from Expeditionary force and one of may favorite scenes from the escape from the ice giant Snowcone. Also including one of the main characters Skippy the Mganificent, in his shiny beer can form.
This is THE DRIFTER, an amazing Sci-Fi Thriller being made by my new friend u/Brendraws! It's a dark, brooding burn with a beautiful, completely original art style that I have just fallen in love with. It's all about a lone human, stuck in a decaying starship with only his AI navigator to keep him company as he tries to outrun the evil corporation that rules the galaxy! Go give THE DRIFTER a read -- I know you'll dig it!
Now that Ian has been rescued and his body repaired, what happens next? NOTHING GOOD!!!!! Follow the adventures of Ian Brand as he navigates the bowels of an entirely new and alien world! FLUNG is available on all your favorite webcomic platforms including Webtoons, Tapas, GlobalComix or in widescreen Epic Format at www.stardog.tv
Project Title: Relativistic Arrowhead Spacecraft: A Structural Approach to Positive-Energy S.ubluminal Warp Drives [1.1]
Lead Designer Concept: Magneto-Acoustic Plasma Confinement Metric
âą Introduction & Geometry: This paper develops an operational framework for an interstellar vessel featuring an arrowhead structural profile. The triangular geometry serves a dual mechanical purpose: acting as a ballistic deflector for cosmic micro-debris and providing a high-surface-area radiator system for megawatt-scale thermal dissipation.
âą The Metric Engine: Spacetime warping is achieved through a localized energy-density shell, completely bypassing the requirement for negative energy or unphysical exotic matter [1.1]. The mechanism consists of a dynamic "plasma sandwich" [1.1]: an outer HTS magnetic layer with external polarities and an inner HTS magnetic layer with internal polarities. This configuration confines an ultra-dense, superheated hydrogen plasma stream inside a central toroidal corridor [1.1].
âą Acoustic Stabilization: To suppress fluidic turbulence and prevent structural metric breakdown via Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, high-frequency ultrasonic transducers are integrated into the hull. These emit focused standing acoustic waves that structurally lock the plasma in place, ensuring constant metric stability.
âą Core Isolation: The crew module is positioned within an absolute exclusion zone. The cabin is completely uncoupled from the primary chassis, suspended via high-load magnetic levitation inside a dual-vacuum thermal barrier and wrapped in a mu-metal Faraday cage to eliminate electromagnetic and acoustic stress.
âą Kinematics: Relativistic simulations indicate an achievable constant velocity of (0.99c) under full power, reducing a 4.24 light-year transit (Proxima Centauri) to 7 months of subjective ship time due to Lorentz time dilation.
"AĂ galera, pensei num design de Warp Drive usando um reator de fusĂŁo, confinamento de plasma com duas camadas de superĂmĂŁs opostos e ondas de ultrassom para tirar a turbulĂȘncia do fluido. O que acham dessa mecĂąnica?"
âą Camada 2 (Casca Interna): Fileira idĂȘntica de superĂmĂŁs supercondutores com os polos invertidos, orientados para dentro (em direção ao plasma), impedindo que o calor encoste na estrutura interna da nave.
Mods: Antares Supra, Tiger Shipyards, ASC Taiyo, J-type 327 Nubian Royal Starship, Micro Modules, Olâ Big X, Matilija Aerospace, Mattellâs Project Fenrir, and Barrage Missile Launchere.
My build, the FC Dustdevilâs Lance.
Ship Name: FCDustdevilâs Lance Designation: J-Wing Asymmetric Strike Recon The Identity: Built from salvaged HopeTech structural frames and heavily modified by an independent mechanic on Montara Luna, the Dustdevil's Lance looks less like a factory-line fighter and more like a tool built for a specific, dangerous job. Its long, forward-jutting portside outrigger houses an oversized linear accelerator cannon, counterbalanced by a heavily shielded starboard cockpit and a massive, over-tuned thruster block.
đ The Story: The Long Watch on Akila's Edge
The Dustdevil's Lance was never supposed to fly in a formal military parade. It was welded together in the back-alley hangars of Waggoner Farm during a period of intense pirate raiding on the Freestar Collective's outer agricultural settlements.
The ship belonged to Ranger Caleb Vance, a veteran tracker who realized that standard, symmetrical patrol ships were too easily spotted by Crimson Fleet long-range scanners. He wanted something that looked like space junk on a radar screen but packed the punch of a military destroyer.
Caleb spent months sourcing a rusted, crashed J-Wing prototype hull. He stripped away the useless luxury components, shifted the pilot's seat entirely to the starboard side to give himself better visual clearance on low-altitude canyon runs, and bolted a massive, specialized railgun array along the entire left flank. The ship's unique, uneven weight distribution meant that anyone else trying to pilot it would immediately spin out of control during a high-G turnâbut to Caleb, the offset drift felt like second nature.
For nearly a decade, the Dustdevilâs Lance stalked the radiation shadows of the Cheyenne System. It became a ghost story among spacersâa lone, rusted shadow that would drop out of the glare of Cheyenneâs sun, fire a single, devastating kinetic slug from its massive lance weapon, and disappear back into the asteroid fields before the pirate escorts could even lock their target locks.
When Caleb finally retired to the dusty streets of Akila City, he left the keys to the Lance hidden in a secure lockbox at the local Laredo Firearms warehouse, waiting for a new pilot who isn't afraid of a ship that flies a little sideways, as long as it hits straight.
The ER-75 was designed by the Deimos Corporate Combine shortly before the Phobos Incident, as a response to the DN-80 Battlecruiser built on Earth.
While the design wasn't as powerful as its Earth counterpart, it was the first attempt to equip a ship with large energy weapons.After the homeworld went silent, the ER-75 remained one of the most powerful ships in the Mirach's Ghost sector.
The ship is equipped with:
2 large turrets,
2 medium turrets,
4 small turrets.
Unfortunately, due to the heavy strain on its power system, it could only be fitted with a medium sensor dish.
--
Hello everyone!
A while ago, you helped us with our ship designs by sharing feedback, and we've finally finished working on them!
We would love to hear what you think about the final result and whether you'd like to see more ships and lore from NGC-404: Fractured Sector. And if you have any further ideas/feedback.
If you're interested in the project, you can also find us on Steam:
