Today, Cloud Imperium Games presented the final form of another ship coming to the growing space simulator Star Citizen, the Gatac Railen.
The Railen is a relatively large cargo ship of alien origin, designed with technology from the Xi‘an Empire.
Like many alien ships, it comes with a transforming feature between two very different shapes, landed and in flight.
Unlike its original design, it’s capable of carrying standard containers, but triangular shielding platens have been added to protect your precious cargo.
We also learn that the ship will release on June 17, with the launch of update alpha 4.8.2.
You can check out a video below, with plenty of developer commentary explaining the design and features of the Gatac Railen.
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a PC exclusive, crowdfunded project directed by Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame. It’s a multiplayer sandbox space simulator that has been in development for over a decade and in alpha for several years. Version Alpha 4.8.1 has recently been released.
The crowdfunding total for the game just passed one billion dollars, and it’s currently sitting at $1,016,144,337. The game currently has 6,578,568 registered accounts, but we know that not all are paying customers.
Some are alt accounts, while others are simply created to enjoy the “Free Fly” periods that fairly often let non-backers enjoy the game at no cost.
It’s notable that Star Citizen’s funding tally for 2025 has beaten all records from previous years by a large margin.
A single-player campaign titled Squadron 42 is also in active development with a recently confirmed 2026 release window, starring an exceptional cast of famous actors, including Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Gillian Anderson, and more.
Since the project has been in development for over a decade, you can see how Squadron 42 has evolved since its first reveal.
Full disclosure: the author of this article has backed Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign.
