No Man’s Sky: How to Complete the Launch Milestone in Expedition 23

Launch is the very first milestone in Expedition 23: Our Journey Continues, and it sets the tone for the whole anniversary run. Your starter ship, the Rasamama S36, spawns with broken parts, so before you can leave the planet you have to gather a few materials, refine them, and fix two ship systems. It sounds fiddly, but the whole thing takes only a few minutes once you know what to craft.

Quick answer: Repair the Launch Thrusters and Pulse Engine on the Rasamama S36, then fly into space and answer the incoming Hello Games transmission to complete the Launch milestone.

Start Expedition 23 first

There are two ways into Our Journey Continues, and both drop you on the starting planet next to the damaged Rasamama S36. You can begin a fresh save from the game mode menu, or jump in from an existing save through the Expedition Terminus aboard the Space Anomaly.

Save selection and expedition launch — Starting from a new save: pick Expedition 23: Our Journey Continues in the game mode menu. Shown at 00:04 in Scottish Rod’s video. Image: Hello Games

If you enter through the Anomaly instead, fly out in your ship, summon the Anomaly, and interact with the Expedition Terminus at the front of the complex.

Entering through the Terminus lets you carry supplies over from your main save. That is optional for Launch, since the milestone rewards hand you the materials you need, but it speeds up the later phases.

Once you confirm your loadout, hit Start Expedition and you will spawn beside the broken ship, ready to work on Launch.

Preparing expedition loadout — The loadout screen with the Start Expedition button that drops you on the starting planet. Shown at 01:44 in Scottish Rod’s video. Image: Hello Games

Gather and refine the repair materials

Everything you need to fix the ship comes from the starting planet. Focus on three raw materials before you touch the ship: Di-Hydrogen from ground crystals, Carbon from plants, and Ferrite Dust from rocks.

Mine roughly 40 Di-Hydrogen from the blue crystals scattered across the surface. Pick up Carbon from nearby flora and Ferrite Dust by shooting or mining rocks.

Place a Portable Refiner by the ship and use it for two runs: process 80 Carbon to get 40 Condensed Carbon, then refine 50 Ferrite Dust into 50 Pure Ferrite. Collect the refiner afterward.

Use those refined materials to craft one Metal Plating, one Hermetic Seal, and one Di-Hydrogen Jelly. These three components feed directly into the two ship repairs.

Repair the Rasamama S36 and fly into space

Two systems on the starter ship need repairs before you can take off. Open the ship’s technology menu and follow the prompts on each damaged part.

Ship system	Repair cost
Launch Thrusters	50 Pure Ferrite, 1 Di-Hydrogen Jelly
Pulse Engine	1 Hermetic Seal, 1 Metal Plating

Repair the Launch Thrusters using your 50 Pure Ferrite and the Di-Hydrogen Jelly. This restores the fuel you need to lift off the surface.

Repair the Pulse Engine with the Hermetic Seal and Metal Plating. With both systems fixed, the ship is flight-ready.

Board the ship, take off, and fly straight up out of the atmosphere into open space. An incoming transmission from Hello Games and Sean Murray plays automatically, and the milestone completes.

Repairing Starship and Launch Milestone — Reaching space triggers the completion banner: the cockpit reads "Milestone Complete: LAUNCH.". Shown at 03:17 in ConCon’s video. Image: Hello Games

This transmission belongs to the anniversary developer commentary. At each expedition milestone, a brief Sean Murray recording discusses the update named by that milestone; the Catalog & Guide tab lists these under Journey Records.

How you know Launch is done, and what you get

You have finished the milestone the moment the cockpit shows the Launch completion banner and the transmission ends. Open the expedition Log to claim the rewards, which include materials and blueprints that make the next milestones faster.

Foundational Base Parts
2x Microprocessor
4x Ion Battery
2x Wiring Loom
350x Pure Ferrite
Advanced Mining Laser plans

The Microprocessors, Ion Batteries, and Pure Ferrite carry straight into the following milestone, so claim them before you fly off. From here the run moves on to Foundation, Pathfinder, and Waking Titan, each named after an early update in the game’s history.