No Man’s Sky Cosmos reshapes exploration, but station ownership details remain unclear

Cosmos changes the useful unit of exploration from the galaxy to the individual star system. The new local Star Map, accessed through the Quick Menu, places planets, the space station and deep-space points of interest on one routing layer. That is a more practical change than another set of planetary discoveries: players can now plan short in-system runs between targets instead of treating space mainly as transit.

Hello Games released the free 7.0 update on September 9, 2026, as part of No Man’s Sky’s 10th anniversary. It is available to existing players on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2, Mac, PSVR, PC VR and Xbox Game Pass. The new Signals tutorial is the correct starting point, because it introduces both the map and navigation around the newly expanded set of deep-space locations.

Those locations include rocky and icy asteroid belts, debris fields, asteroid platforms, inhabited and infested outposts, plus procedurally generated space hulks. Hulks turn wreckage into a salvage activity: players can break apart physical material and collect it with the Corvette’s new Tractor Beam utility part, which moves cargo into the ship’s hold. Spacewalking now supports six degrees of freedom, including roll, but drains the exosuit’s cold-protection technology when no other environmental hazard is present.

The strongest immediate loop is therefore map, scan, salvage and return: identify a belt or hulk, fit the Tractor Beam, collect materials, then move to an inhabited or infested outpost. Deep-space anomalies can also award rare station-decoration blueprints. Cosmos has been associated with space-station control and free-floating orbital bases, but the available update details do not define ownership rules, building limits, placement restrictions or customization permissions. The confirmed shift is broader space infrastructure and more destinations to navigate within a system.

Test the local Star Map and Signals first, then take a Corvette to a hulk or asteroid belt to see whether Cosmos’ new routing and salvage systems justify changing a familiar travel routine.