Flight and Autopilot
The full sequence requires Ad Astra and a launch world registered as a surface planet. The autopilot handles the ship’s movement throughout the route.
Flight sequence
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Takeoff | The engine ignites, the camera shakes, and the ship begins ascending vertically. |
| Atmospheric transit | The ship continues upward through the volumetric cloud layer. |
| Atmosphere exit | The orbital view appears and the ship rotates for travel. |
| Destination selection | You select a planet, or the server chooses its configured destination. |
| Temporal jump | The jump effects start and the destination planet gradually grows in view. The server prepares the landing area. |
| Stabilization | Jump effects stop and the destination’s orbital view remains visible. |
| Approach | The ship automatically rotates into its vertical landing orientation. |
| Landing | The ship descends through clouds, enters the destination world, and brakes above safe ground. |
| Landed | The engine stops and the cockpit door opens. |
At the default settings, clouds start during ascent at Y=300. Their upper opening reveals the orbital view as the ship reaches space. Takeoff exhaust switches off in the orbital stages.
During descent, a heat shield effect forms beneath the ship. Close to the ground, the engine produces a landing burn and a smaller camera shake.
Cameras and cabin
The pilot’s seat follows the vertical rocket orientation. First-person view uses the cockpit camera, while third-person view supports SBW’s free camera. Use Minecraft’s perspective control and SBW’s camera controls to change your view.
The door opens when the ship is placed, closes when the pilot boards, and opens after an automatic landing. It also opens when the pilot seat is empty.
While aboard a healthy Starship, Ad Astra’s oxygen, temperature, and acid-rain checks protect the passenger. That protection ends when you leave the ship. Bring the equipment required by your destination before disembarking.
Destinations and landing sites
The destination menu lists available Ad Astra surface planets within the ship’s PlanetTier. The default tier is 4. Ad Astra’s disabled-planet settings also affect which destinations are available.
Normal travel uses Ad Astra’s arrival location as the preferred landing area. A fixed server route uses the configured X/Z area instead. The autopilot searches nearby for solid ground and enough clearance for the ship, and avoids landing inside another Starship.
The orbital planet view is a procedural visual configured by datapacks. It is not a live map of the terrain below.
Terrain transfer
The server prepares destination chunks during the jump. The actual dimension transfer happens during descent, inside the cloud layer, at Y=591 by default. The addon keeps the flight view visible through the transfer and suppresses the normal terrain-loading screen for this sequence.
See Datapack Reference before changing the cloud or transfer altitudes. Their overlap conceals the change between the orbital view and the destination terrain.