Star Citizen's IAE 2956 is open for PTU testing, and it's back at New Babbage's Tobin Expo Center

The ship show is on the test server. On Tuesday morning, Shark-CIG from CIG’s Player Experience Team opened a PTU feedback thread for the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2956 on Spectrum, and it’s on the RSI Devtracker too. The post says the expo is open for testing at the Tobin Expo Center on New Babbage, and that CIG is “looking for any major issues” plus general feedback on the hall setup. There’s also a feedback survey, which stays open until November 30.

That lines up with what RSI hinted at in its November 2026 Subscriber Promotions Comm-Link, which says November is “bringing more action with the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo.” The PTU itself is the 4.10.3 build that opened to all backers this week, so anyone with a game package can hop over and walk the halls right now.

What’s confirmed, and what isn’t

The location is the big confirmed piece. After IAE 2955 was held in Orison last year, the expo is going back to the cold of microTech.

What CIG hasn’t announced yet is the schedule. There are no official dates, no manufacturer lineup and no word on a Free Fly. You’ll see a November 13 start date going around on fan sites, but that comes from data-mined files, not from RSI, so I’d treat it as a guess for now. For reference, the last two expos ran Nov 22 to Dec 5, 2024 and Nov 20 to Dec 3, 2025, and RSI posted a “Save the Date” about two weeks before each one, according to Star Citizen Free Fly’s tracker. Both of those expos had a Free Fly.

What testers are finding

The replies are what you’d expect from a first PTU pass. Players have reported being able to lock the display ships so nobody else can get in (one tester filed it on the Issue Council as an exploit), being able to extend ship rentals over and over, some ships showing up invisible, and doors that won’t open. Others are asking whether the halls will rotate by manufacturer every couple of days like before, and whether the food and drink stalls are coming back. These are player reports, not CIG statements, so we’ll see what gets fixed before it goes Live.

PPR take: I’m honestly pretty happy to see IAE back at Tobin. There’s something about walking out of a snowstorm into that giant hall full of ships that just feels right for this event. Getting it onto the PTU this early is a good sign too. IAE is the week a LOT of new players show up for the first time, so the more of the lock-the-ship and broken-door stuff gets caught now, the better that first impression is. My one worry is the same one a few folks raised in the thread…New Babbage already gets busy, and IAE crowds plus a possible Free Fly could make the spaceport and trains rough. If you’ve got some time, go poke around the halls on the PTU and fill out the survey. That’s the easiest way to have a say in how this one turns out. o7