Starbase Simulator 2

OUT NOW

Starbase Simulator 2 is free on Windows. Follow this page and itch.io will notify you the moment the download goes live. Until then, look around: the countdown above is running, and every image and clip in the gallery is a real in-game capture.

Launch build 0.18: a rebuilt Pad 2 deluge and steel flame bucket, booster quick disconnects, frosting Raptor powerheads, a photo-real Starbase and a full Settings menu.

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33 engines. One GO for launch.

Take the flight director's chair for a full Starship V3 mission at Starbase. Poll your stations, commit to launch, and follow both vehicles through hot staging, boostback, the booster catch, orbit, satellite deployment, entry, the swoosh back to Starbase and the ship catch. The flight computers fly the vehicles. You make the calls.

Your console

• Launch commit: eight stations (PROP, FTS, RECOVERY, WEATHER, GNC, PAD, RANGE and TPS) report while propellant loads. Read the evidence, then call GO, NO-GO or HOLD.
• Live decision gates: the flight doesn't stop for you. The booster-return poll opens during ascent, and every airborne call has a deadline. Miss one and flight rules take the safe option. The tutorial is the only mode that stops the clock.
• Booster return and catch commit: send Super Heavy back to the tower, or divert it offshore when the winds, fins or propellant say no.
• Orbital insertion and payload deploy: confirm propulsion and heat-shield health, then open the Pez door and release a Starlink-class simulator about once a minute, just like Flight 10.
• Anomalies: engine faults, fin actuators, tower winds and tile damage arrive as station evidence. Mitigate them, or terminate the flight if it comes to that.

What you'll watch

• Pad 2 coming alive: from T-15 s water erupts from the steel flame bucket and floods the trench. The booster quick disconnects snap back and their hoods close, then 33 Raptors light, their powerheads frosting over and their throats glowing.
• Transonic vapor through Mach 1, then hot staging as Starship lights its engines on top of the booster.
• Boostback, a landing burn stepping from 13 to 5 to 3 engines, and the chopsticks closing as Super Heavy's grid fins settle onto the raised catch rails.
• A heat shield of roughly 18,000 hexagonal tiles, and plasma streaming off every flap edge.
• The swoosh: Starship banks on its flaps and S-turns toward Starbase before rolling level to line up on the tower. Then it flips, and the landing burn brings it down onto the arms, its catch pins seated on the rails.
• The Earth from NASA Blue Marble imagery, with city lights on the night side. Starbase is rebuilt from OpenStreetMap: both Mega Bays, the Gigabay rising in steel with its tower cranes, Starfactory, the Rocket Garden, palm-lined streets and parked cars, and the Pad A tower. Windows light up for night launches.
• Minimal 3-D attitude indicators for both vehicles, live in the telemetry band.
• Storm lines, night launches, and Pez deployment filmed from inside the bay.

Modes

• Tutorial: five guided lessons. An on-screen coach points at the right control and explains why.
• Campaign: eight missions with a program budget, from an offshore recovery to a multi-failure contingency flight.
• Weekly challenge: the same seed and conditions for every player.
• Rehearsals: three quick flights: a clear day, a coastal window or a night launch.
• Sandbox: any mission with your own conditions (Mission Control Pass, coming later).

Tools

Ten camera modes: auto-direct, pad, ship and booster tracking, the catch, engines, a flap-mounted onboard view, aerial, payload bay and hatch. You also get time warp up to 120×, pause, photo mode, clip recording and shareable replay codes. A Settings menu covers audio, graphics, display, units and camera controls.

Built from real flights

Timelines, staging, the catch sequence, payload cadence, entry and the tower-return banking follow public Starship flight data (Flights 7 to 13). It's an independent fan simulation. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by SpaceX, and it is not an engineering tool.

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System requirements

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
• DirectX 12 GPU with Shader Model 6 (start on Medium quality)
• About 1 GB of disk space
• Keyboard and mouse

Made with Unreal Engine 5. The download will appear on this page at launch. Earth imagery: NASA Earth Observatory. Buildings: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Vehicle models: Clarence365 and Ijsz23, CC BY 4.0 (modified).