Your ship is almost certainly not gone. In Star Citizen Alpha 4.10.1, a ship that has vanished from your hangar or refuses to spawn at an ASOP terminal is nearly always one of four recoverable situations — a stale hangar that just needs a relog, a known bug affecting a specific ship, a destroyed ship waiting on an insurance claim, or an in-game-purchased ship lost to a wipe. This guide walks each one and tells you exactly what to do.
Quick answer: If it's a pledged (real-money) ship, it cannot be permanently lost — reclaim it at any ASOP terminal, relog to clear a stale hangar, or wait out a known bug. If it's a ship you bought with aUEC, it can be destroyed or wiped — that one may genuinely be gone. Check which type you have first; everything flows from that.
This applies to Star Citizen Alpha 4.10.1, the current LIVE build (live since 2026-09-16). Star Citizen is still in alpha, so ship persistence, insurance, and the hangar itself are all works in progress — which is exactly why ships "disappear" more than you'd expect in a finished game.
The one distinction that decides everything: pledged vs. aUEC
Before you panic, answer one question: how did you get the ship?
- Pledged ships were bought with real money (or store credit) on the Roberts Space Industries pledge store. They are account-bound. They survive every wipe, and a "disappearance" is always temporary — a bug, a rework, or a hangar that needs refreshing.
- aUEC ships were bought in-game with aUEC (Alpha United Earth Credits), the test currency you earn from missions, mining, salvage, and hauling. These do not survive a full wipe, and if one is destroyed without an active insurance claim it can be lost.
A player on r/starcitizen put the confusion perfectly this week after a wipe: "How come my Starfarer is still there when I bought it with credits and not real money?" The honest answer is that aUEC-purchased ships behave inconsistently across version changes and partial resets — which is the whole reason the community treats pledged ships as the only truly permanent fleet.
CIG's own position, documented on the Star Citizen Wiki, is blunt: "aUEC, and anything purchased with it, can be wiped at any point so that a clean slate can be instituted to begin a new cycle of testing," and "players cannot be reimbursed aUEC if lost due to a crash or bugs." Treat an aUEC ship as disposable. Treat a pledged ship as safe.
Case 1: A pledged ship vanished — it's a known bug, not a loss
Sometimes a specific pledged ship is simply missing from the ASOP terminal — no claim option, no error, just absent — while the rest of your fleet is fine. In an alpha build, that is almost always a bug or a known issue with that ship or hull, not a loss. Pledged ships are account-bound: they survive wipes, destruction, and reworks, so a disappearance like this is temporary by definition.
A current community example is the RSI Constellation line (Aquila, Andromeda, Taurus, Phoenix). Some players on r/starcitizen have reported their Constellation temporarily unavailable at the ASOP terminal, with speculation tying it to an upcoming Constellation update. Treat that as community chatter, not confirmed fact — as of this writing CIG has not published patch notes confirming a Constellation rework, a "Constellation Mk V," or any ship removal, and reputable trackers flag the Mk V specifically as a rumor. The useful takeaway isn't the rumor; it's the principle: if one pledged ship is missing while others aren't, it's a transient bug, not a deletion.
What to do: nothing destructive. Do not file a lost-ship ticket in a panic, and do not assume you need to re-buy the ship. First relog (Case 4). If it's still gone, check status.robertsspaceindustries.com and the official 4.x release/patch notes for a logged issue, then open a ticket if nothing explains it. Because the ship is account-bound, it comes back — whether you'd scrapped, stored, or never touched it before it vanished.
One caveat so you don't over-generalize this: a single missing pledged hull points to a bug. A whole fleet of aUEC ships gone at once points to a wipe (Case 3). The fix depends entirely on which one you're seeing.
Case 2: The ship was destroyed or is stuck — claim it at an ASOP terminal
If your ship blew up, got left in a broken state, or is "somewhere else" and you just want a fresh one, this is the normal recovery path, and it works for both pledged and aUEC ships because every ship in the alpha carries a basic insurance plan.
Per the Star Citizen Wiki: "all ships and vehicles are given a basic insurance plan that does not expire to facilitate testing. At this time, it requires no upkeep or fee for players to acquire basic ship loss coverage. There may be a fee to file a claim or expedite a replacement." In plain terms: you are always covered, but you pay (in aUEC) and/or wait to get the ship back.
Steps:
- Travel to a hangar or spaceport and find an ASOP terminal (Automated Ship Organization Program) — they sit near the arrivals area of every major landing zone and station.
- Open the Vehicles tab and select the ship.
- If the ship can't simply be retrieved, you'll see a Claim option. Filing a claim starts a claim timer.
- Wait out the timer, or pay to expedite it. Access the terminal again to expedite an in-progress claim.
Two 4.10 mechanics changed the cost and wait here, so set expectations correctly:
- Claim and delivery timers now scale with the ship's value. Small ships clear in a couple of minutes; a large, expensive hull takes considerably longer.
- Expedite is capped. The paid expedite fee is capped at one-tenth of the standard claim rate, and weapons/racks are now priced into the claim cost rather than being free.
The paint-and-loadout trap: when you claim a ship this way, the default claim gives you back a stock hull — custom paint and swapped components do not automatically carry over, and a careless claim is how people "lose" their loadout. That specific trap, and how to avoid paying twice for your components, is covered in our companion Star Citizen ship claiming guide (paint and loadout).
Case 3: Everything is gone after a patch — that's a wipe
If you logged in after a version change and your aUEC balance, in-game-bought ships, and items all vanished at once, you didn't hit a bug. You hit a wipe.
Here's the verified recent history (source: scfocus.org wipe tracking):
- Alpha 4.8 (2026-05-14): FULL WIPE — aUEC, in-game-acquired ships/vehicles, and items were all deleted.
- Alpha 4.9, 4.10, and 4.10.1: no wipe — though consumables, refinery jobs, and loose cargo can still be lost on a version change.
So if "everything is gone" and it happened at a patch boundary, the aUEC side of your account was reset by design. Your pledged ships are untouched — they'll be sitting in your RSI hangar on the website and claimable at an ASOP terminal in-game. The only things truly lost are what you bought or earned with aUEC. There is no reimbursement for wiped aUEC; this is explicitly stated in CIG's rules. As for the next patch: CIG only confirms wipe status in the final live patch notes. Every 4.10.2 PTU build so far has listed Long Term Persistence as enabled with no wipe announced — which points to progress carrying over — but treat it as unconfirmed until release day rather than banking on it either way.
This is also the real reason the community keeps saying "the grind resets." Spending hours rebuilding an aUEC fleet right before a suspected wipe is how people lose the most time — the bottleneck in Star Citizen is rarely skill, it's re-earning aUEC after every reset. Earn it through the live loops (hauling, bounties, mining, salvage); there is no legitimate shortcut. Note on gray-market aUEC: RSI's Terms of Service explicitly prohibit "gathering in-game virtual items or resources for sale outside the Game" and selling "Game credits" or accounts, on RSI or any third-party site. Buying aUEC from a seller is a Terms-of-Service violation with penalties up to account termination and no compensation — so no amount of "my ships are gone" frustration makes a seller a safe fix.
Case 4: The ship is still there — your hangar is just stale
Sometimes nothing was lost at all. The hangar or ASOP terminal is showing stale data, or your ship is simply parked somewhere else. Work through these before assuming the worst:
- You're at the wrong location. A stored ship lives at the station/city where you left it or last claimed it. Check the ASOP home location — the ship may be perfectly fine two systems away.
- Stale ASOP list. Fully quit the game client, log out of the RSI launcher, wait a couple of minutes, and log back in. A relog clears most "ghost" missing-ship displays.
- You just switched PTU ↔ LIVE. Your PTU hangar and LIVE hangar are separate. If you flipped environments, close the client, log out of the launcher, wait ~2 minutes, and log back into the correct one.
- Empty "Select System" or no ships at all. This usually means no Game Package is active on the account — the transaction didn't process, or the package was melted to store credit — rather than a lost ship. Confirm your package on the RSI account page.
- Still missing after a relog? Check status.robertsspaceindustries.com for an active incident, then file a ticket through the RSI support site. Only CIG can resolve a genuine account-side ship loss — community members can't, and neither can any third party.
FAQ
Is my pledged ship gone for good if it disappeared? No. Pledged (real-money) ships are account-bound and survive wipes, reworks, and destruction. If it's missing, it's almost always a stale hangar that needs a relog, a known bug affecting that specific ship, or a ship that needs a claim at an ASOP terminal. It is always recoverable.
Why can't I spawn my Constellation in Alpha 4.10.1? Some players have reported the RSI Constellation temporarily unavailable at the ASOP terminal, with community speculation about an upcoming Constellation update. As of this writing CIG has not published patch notes confirming a Constellation rework or a "Mk V," so treat that as an unverified rumor. The reliable part: a single missing pledged hull is a bug, not a loss — relog first, check status.robertsspaceindustries.com, and open a ticket if it persists.
My ship was destroyed — how do I get it back? Go to an ASOP terminal, open the Vehicles tab, select the ship, and choose Claim. Every ship in the alpha has free basic insurance, so you're covered. Wait out the claim timer (longer for bigger ships) or pay aUEC to expedite. The default claim returns a stock hull, so re-check your paint and components.
I bought the ship with aUEC and now it's gone — can I recover it? Only if it's destroyed and you file a claim before it's cleared. If it vanished at a patch boundary, it was most likely removed in a wipe, and aUEC-purchased ships are not reimbursed. This is the core reason the community treats only pledged ships as a permanent fleet.
Did Alpha 4.10.1 wipe my account? No. Alpha 4.9, 4.10, and 4.10.1 were all no-wipe patches (though consumables and loose cargo can be lost on version changes). The last full wipe was Alpha 4.8 on 2026-05-14. If everything disappeared, check whether you crossed a patch or environment boundary.
Should I buy aUEC from a seller to rebuild my fleet faster? No. RSI's Terms of Service prohibit buying or selling aUEC, in-game items, and accounts — on RSI or any third-party site — with penalties up to account termination and no compensation. Re-earn aUEC through the in-game loops instead; it's the only safe path.
