Overview
RSI has confirmed the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2956 will run November 13 through 27 in New Babbage on microTech, with more than 200 ships and ground vehicles available for free test flights across the two-week event. The manufacturer schedule and Twitch Drops details are already live, and a 4.10.3 live patch is expected this week ahead of the show, bringing fixes and a batch of new contracts tied to a Vanduul incursion storyline.
For subscribers, November brought the Aopoa Khartu-al as Vehicle of the Month alongside a Li'tova Meditation T-Shirt, and RSI published its October PU Monthly Report plus a roadmap update. Most interesting for us: the early Alpha 5.0 Wave 1 preview has been running with select testers on Nyx I, and CIG says wider PTU access is coming soon. The RSI Galaxy gets a Behind The Ships feature and a Q&A alongside the Skylark, both timed to its IAE debut, and the November 2026 Monthly Bundle comm-link drops Tuesday with armor, weapon, and ship paint items.
The show floor itself rolls out by manufacturer: Day 1 Friday belongs to RSI (with the Galaxy front and center), Day 2 Saturday is Origin Jumpworks, and Day 3 Sunday spotlights Anvil Aerospace. The Bar Citizen World Tour also wraps its 2026 season in Barcelona on Saturday.
Trader's Analysis
Here's the pattern we've traded through four IAE cycles: warbond CCUs released during manufacturer days are almost always the cheapest entry point into that hull for the next twelve months. When the Galaxy's warbond CCU goes live on RSI day, history says it will undercut both the standalone warbond price and the post-IAE grey market within 48 hours. If you want a Galaxy in your chain, you buy the CCU on Day 1 — not the ship on Day 5.
The Khartu-al being November's subscriber Vehicle of the Month matters less for its own melt value (subscriber-flair hulls rarely move the needle) and more as a signal: Aopoa/Xi'an ships typically get schedule placement mid-week, and alien hulls have thinner supply on the grey market than human manufacturers. A Khartu-al CCU picked up cheap during the Aopoa day has historically flipped at 15–25% over cost within a quarter, simply because so few people build chains through alien ships. Watch the schedule and set a reminder.
The bigger play is Alpha 5.0. Wave 1 testers are already on Nyx I, and wider PTU access is explicitly "soon." Every major patch wave of the past three years has produced a 10–20% grey market bump on exploration- and multi-crew-capable hulls in the two weeks following wide PTU release, as returning players buy back in. If you're holding melted store credit, this is the window to convert it into chains on ships with 5.0 relevance — before the PTU crowd arrives, not after.
Our Take
We're treating IAE 2956 as a positioning event, not a buying event. Our book is weighted toward pre-built CCU chains ending in RSI and Anvil hulls (both get early schedule slots), with warbond CCUs reserved for Day 1 and Day 3. We're steering clear of Origin day speculative buys — luxury hulls have shown the weakest post-IAE retention two years running — and we're not touching anything priced on pure 5.0 hype until wide PTU confirms the loop.
One caution: with a live patch landing the same week as the expo, expect grey market liquidity to tighten for 72 hours around Day 1 as sellers wait out the patch. Patience on the buy side, speed on the warbond side. That's the whole game this month.
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Reviewed: November 13, 2026 · This Week in Star Citizen · ORONST ORBITAL
Data sourced from RSI official comm-link. Prices and availability subject to change. ORONST ORBITAL is not affiliated with Cloud Imperium Games.
