Your Skylark undocked fine, you flew off, and now you cannot get it back onto the Constellation Mk V. If that is you, you are not doing anything wrong — the snub on the new Mk V can only dock while the mothership is flying, which makes solo re-docking genuinely awkward, and a bad server can make it fail outright. This guide covers the exact docking procedure, the solo workaround players are using to get the Skylark back aboard, how to recover it when it is stranded on the ground, and the current bugs to avoid so you do not lose the whole ship.
Quick answer: On the Constellation Mk V Centaurus in Star Citizen Alpha 4.10.2 (live since October 9, 2026, build `4.10.2-LIVE.12881860`), the RSI Skylark snub can only dock while the Mk V is airborne — it cannot dock while the mothership is landed. To re-dock: get the Mk V flight-ready and hovering, fly the Skylark up to the rear ventral dock, target the Mk V (T) and press the docking key (default `N`, or `Right Alt + N` on current binds) with the Skylark powered on, then let the auto-dock pull you in. Solo, you leave the Mk V hovering, jump out, board the Skylark, and dock back — using the cargo lift to lower the climb helps. If docking just will not take, it is usually server load; retry on a fresh instance. Discovery Month (and this five-day rental) ends in late October 2026 (CIG's FAQ lists October 20), so there is a short window to practise.
Why won't the Skylark re-dock on the Constellation Mk V?
Because of how the dock is built. The Skylark is RSI's new one-seat snub fighter, released alongside the Constellation Mk V Centaurus in Alpha 4.10.2, and it attaches to a dedicated ventral dock on the rear of the Mk V — the same body position older Constellations used for the P-52 Merlin. The Star Citizen Wiki confirms the role directly: "The Roberts Space Industries Skylark presents an in-house successor for the dockable snub fighter role in a new generation of Constellations, and the dedicated ventral dock is integrated into the aft engineering and observation space." (Source: Star Citizen Wiki, Constellation Mk V Centaurus.)
The catch is that, as of 4.10.2, docking requires the Mk V to be in flight. You cannot land the Constellation, hop in the Skylark, and reattach on the pad — the game simply will not offer the dock. For a crew that is fine: one pilot keeps the Mk V hovering while another flies the snub in. Solo, it means you have to leave a flying ship unattended for a moment, which feels like a workaround rather than an intended flow. As one player put it on r/StarCitizen this week, "it would be too stupid to require me to jump from a flying ship to be able to dock... Surely CIG knew solo players would be using this ship too, right?" The honest answer is that the "park and dock while landed" convenience is tied to a future ASOP / ship-to-ship loading update that is on CIG's plans but undated — so for now the airborne method is the only one that works.
How do you dock the Skylark? (step by step)
The core dock is a single action once you are lined up. Here is the full sequence for a multi-crew setup first, then the solo version.
- Get the Mk V flight-ready and airborne. It must be flying — hovering a few metres off a pad or holding altitude is enough. Do not try this landed.
- Power on the Skylark and get it flight-ready (`R` by default). An unpowered snub cannot request a dock.
- Target the Constellation Mk V. Press `T` to target the ship you want to dock with.
- Fly to the rear ventral dock at the back/underside of the Mk V and get close — within a few metres, roughly aligned with the dock.
- Press the docking key. Default is `N`; on current keybind sets the working combo is `Right Alt + N` (plain `N` may do nothing if your binds changed). This requests the dock and hands off to the auto-dock, which pulls the snub into place.
- Let the auto-dock finish. Do not fight it with thruster input. When it completes you are seated in the docked Skylark inside the Mk V.
If the auto-dock seats you slightly off-centre (a known cosmetic quirk players have reported), that is the dock landing you a touch to one side — it does not break anything on its own; just exit and re-enter the seat normally.
How do I dock the Skylark solo?
This is the real question for most people, because there is no "dock while parked" option yet. The method players are using in 4.10.2:
- Bring the Mk V to a low hover over flat ground. Lower is better — it shortens the climb and the time the ship sits unattended.
- Drop the cargo lift / use the rear ramp to get out while the Mk V holds its hover. (Decoupled mode or a very stable hover helps it stay put.)
- Board the Skylark on the ground, power it on, and get it flight-ready.
- Fly up to the Mk V, target it with `T`, line up on the rear ventral dock, and press the docking key.
One r/StarCitizen player described the exact move: "Jump out of the MkV while it's in the air and get in the Skylark. Fly up to the MkV and dock. I'd use the cargo elevator to decrease the distance to the ground." It is clumsy, but it works, and it is currently the accepted solo answer until CIG ships the landed-docking/ASOP feature.
A safer variant if you have a friend online: have them sit in the Mk V pilot seat to hold the hover while you fly the snub back. That removes the unattended-ship risk entirely.
How do I recover the Skylark if it's lost or stranded?
A rented Skylark is tied to your rental, not stored at a spaceport like a normal ship, so "losing" it usually means one of two situations:
- It's stranded on the ground and you can't re-dock. If you cannot get it back onto the Mk V (bad server, out of time, or you are done flying it), you do not have to dock it to keep the rental — the rental is time-based, not dependent on the snub being physically aboard when you log off. You can leave it, store the Mk V, and the five-day access clock keeps running. If you want the Mk V stored cleanly, dock the snub when you can; otherwise just store the Constellation and move on.
- It genuinely despawned or the dock failed mid-attempt. Store and re-retrieve the Constellation Mk V at an ASOP terminal — reclaiming the parent ship respawns it with the snub attached. Because the Skylark comes with the Mk V rental, pulling a fresh Mk V is the reliable reset.
If the dock keeps failing no matter what you do, it is almost always server load, not your technique. As one 4.10.2 player summed it up: "My guess is server lottery... I'm not going to try again until there's some kind of fix." Switch to a fresh instance (relog to a different server) and try the dock again before assuming anything is wrong with your setup.
The 4.10.2 docking bugs to avoid
Docking the Skylark on the Mk V in 4.10.2 has two live bugs that can cost you more than a failed attempt — including the entire Constellation. Do not skip these:
- Quantum travel can stop working on the Mk V after a dock. Multiple players report QT failing on the Constellation after docking the snub. It is usually recoverable: "It took some fidgeting but eventually I was able to get QT working again." Try fully powering the ship down and back up, and re-selecting your quantum destination.
- Sitting in the docked Skylark can detonate both ships. This is the dangerous one. A player on r/LowSodiumStarCitizen described a clean undock/dock, then: "I went back into the snub ship to turn it off and as soon as I sat in the seat we both exploded." This is the same physics-state bug behind the wider Mk V self-destruct issue in 4.10.2 — when the snub's physics state goes bad it can take the parent ship with it. The safe habit: once docked, leave the Skylark powered off and do not re-seat in it unless you have to, and store/reclaim the Mk V if it starts behaving oddly. For the full breakdown of that explosion bug, see our guide on why your ship keeps taking damage or exploding in Alpha 4.10.2.
None of these are "your PC's fault," and none are fixed by reinstalling or changing settings — they are current-build issues tied to the brand-new Mk V and its snub.
Is the Skylark worth the hassle in 4.10.2?
For a five-day free rental, yes — it is the only way to fly RSI's newest snub, and flying a small scout off the back of a medium freighter is exactly the Constellation fantasy. But set expectations: this is a brand-new ship in a point release, docking is fiddly solo, and the physics bugs are real. Treat the Skylark as a test drive. Fly it, dock it a couple of times to learn the motion, and do not build a mission around it that depends on a flawless dock mid-combat. The rental and the whole RSI Discovery Month event end in late October 2026 (CIG's FAQ lists October 20 — verify on the live comm-link, as the FAQ date can shift), so there is a short window.
One honest note on the grind behind it: the Skylark comes attached to the Constellation Mk V rental, which you earn by completing the Constellation Rental Offer in Discovery Month's Transport missions. Earning event rewards in Star Citizen is a time sink, and the aUEC you make along the way is test currency that can be wiped at any patch with no reimbursement — the last full wipe was Alpha 4.8 on May 14, 2026. Fly for the experience, not to bank anything permanent.
FAQ
Why won't my Skylark dock on the Constellation Mk V? In Alpha 4.10.2 the Skylark can only dock while the Mk V is airborne — it will not dock while the mothership is landed. Make sure the Constellation is flying/hovering and flight-ready, power on the Skylark, target the Mk V with `T`, line up on the rear ventral dock, and press the docking key. If it still fails, it is usually server load — retry on a fresh instance.
What is the keybind to dock the Skylark? The docking action is bound to `N` by default; on current keybind sets the working input is `Right Alt + N`. The snub must be powered on and flight-ready, and you must have the mothership targeted (`T`) before the dock will take.
How do I dock the Skylark solo without a crew? Bring the Mk V to a low hover, get out while it holds the hover (the cargo lift shortens the drop), board the Skylark on the ground, fly up to the Mk V's rear dock, and dock. It is a workaround, not an intended flow — landed docking is tied to a future ASOP/ship-to-ship update CIG has not dated.
Will I lose the Skylark if I can't re-dock it before logging off? No. The Skylark comes with your five-day Mk V rental, which is time-based — you do not have to have it docked to keep it. You can store the Constellation and the rental clock keeps running. If the snub despawns, store and re-retrieve the Mk V at an ASOP terminal to get it back attached.
Does docking the Skylark break quantum travel on the Mk V? It can — several players report QT failing on the Constellation after docking the snub in 4.10.2. It is usually recoverable by powering the ship fully down and back up and re-selecting your quantum destination. It is a current-build bug, not a setup problem.
Can the Skylark explode the whole Constellation? Yes, under a current 4.10.2 bug: re-seating in a docked snub whose physics state has gone bad can detonate both ships. Leave the docked Skylark powered off, avoid re-seating in it unless necessary, and store/reclaim the Mk V if it starts behaving oddly. See our Alpha 4.10.2 ship-exploding fix guide for the full breakdown.
