Part of the Exploration & Endgame series:

Exploration & Endgame Guide Hub: Start here.

Star Systems, Economy & Conflict: What kind of station you will find.

Quick Answer

Every system with a station has the same core set of services: a Galactic Trade Terminal, a Mission Board, a Technology Merchant, a Cartographer, a Scrap Dealer, a Multi-Tool for sale, a Teleporter, and landing pads where NPC ships arrive continuously.
The Galactic Trade Terminal is where you dump loot and buy trade goods. It is the single most-used terminal in the game.
The Technology Merchant sells upgrade modules for Nanite Clusters, and its stock class is random, which is why players reroll it.
Landing pads are the whole reason S-class ship hunting works. Ships land on their own, and you can inspect, buy, or trade against any of them.
The Cartographer converts Navigation Data into charts that mark points of interest on the planets below.
The Scrap Dealer buys ships to break down for parts and sells the scanners that lead you to crashed ships.
Since the Orbital update, station interiors and exteriors are procedurally varied, so two stations rarely look alike even though they hold the same services.
Outlaw system stations replace part of the standard lineup with a Contraband Agent and a smuggling economy.

Overview

A space station sits in orbit in almost every star system in No Man's Sky. Docking is free, instant, and safe. Sentinel interceptors and pirates cannot follow you inside, which makes the station both a service hub and an escape hatch.

What matters is that the station is where the game's economy, technology, and ship progression all converge in one room. You can arrive with a hold full of scanned minerals and leave twenty minutes later with more Units, more Nanites, a better ship, a fresh set of upgrade modules, and three planetary charts pointing at things worth flying to. Knowing what each terminal does turns a routine refuel stop into the most efficient part of a play session.

Every Terminal and Vendor on a Space Station

Terminal / NPC	What it does	Why you stop there
Galactic Trade Terminal	Buys and sells trade commodities, resources, and crafted goods at prices set by the system's economy type and wealth tier	Sell everything you scooped up planetside; buy trade goods cheap for a run to a complementary economy
Mission Board	Offers a rotating list of repeatable missions from the Explorer, Merchant, and Mercenary guilds	Fast, low-effort income in Units, Nanites, and faction standing; missions can be picked up here and stacked across multiple stations
Technology Merchant	Sells starship, Multi-Tool, and Exosuit upgrade modules for Nanite Clusters, and buys modules back for Nanites	The main source of S-class upgrade modules that are not tied to a quest or an expedition
Landing pads and NPC pilots	NPC ships land and take off continuously; you can inspect any ship, buy it outright, or trade your current ship in against it	The core loop of S-class ship hunting; also where you check a ship's class and slot count before committing
Starship vendor / outfitting area	Handles the purchase side of ship swaps and ship customisation options added in Orbital	Upgrading your ship without hunting crash sites
Multi-Tool cabinet / vendor	Displays a Multi-Tool for sale, with its type, class, and slot count fixed per station	Cheap upgrades early, and the fastest way to find a high-slot S-class tool later
Cartographer	Exchanges Navigation Data for planetary and system charts	Turns a stack of junk Navigation Data into directions to crashed ships, ruins, monoliths, and settlements
Scrap Dealer	Scraps starships for salvage and Units, sells Emergency Signal Scanners, and accepts salvaged crew manifests recovered from derelicts	Converts unwanted ships into parts and money; sells the item that leads you to crashed ships
Guild representative	Lets you spend accumulated faction standing with the local guild	Reputation you were earning anyway becomes usable goods
Appearance Modifier (where present)	Changes your character's race, body, and colour options	Cosmetic only, but free to use as often as you like
Teleporter	Travels between space stations you have visited and bases you have built	Move across the galaxy without fuel, and shuttle goods between a mining base and a market

Galactic Trade Terminal

This is the terminal you will use hundreds of times. It buys almost anything in your inventory and sells the trade commodities that system produces. Prices are not flat. The system's economy type and wealth tier shift both sides of the ledger, and dumping a large quantity of a single item into one terminal drives that item's local price down as you sell, so very large hauls are better split across two or three stations.

For the profitable side of this, see the trading guide. The short version is that you buy a commodity where it is produced and sell it in a system whose economy demands it.

Mission Board

The Mission Board lists repeatable guild missions: deliver an item, kill a set of creatures or pirates, scan flora, clear a depot. Rewards are paid in Units, Nanites, and standing with the guild that issued the job.

The board's real value is stacking. You can accept several missions at one board, teleport or warp to another station, accept more there, and complete overlapping objectives in a single trip. Missions that ask for an item you already have in your inventory can often be handed in immediately.

Technology Merchant

The Technology Merchant is a caged booth selling upgrade modules for Nanite Clusters. Stock is generated per station and includes a mix of classes, so the module you want may show up as C-class in one station and S-class in the next. The merchant also buys modules back for Nanites, which is what makes stripping duplicate modules worthwhile.

Because everything here costs Nanites rather than Units, this terminal is the reason Nanite farming matters at all in the mid game.

Landing Pads and Starship Vendors

Ships land on the station pads on their own schedule, and every one of them is buyable. Walk up to a parked ship and you can inspect its class, slot count, and installed technology before spending anything. Buying is either a straight purchase or a trade-in that credits the value of your current ship against the new one.

Traffic quality tracks the system. Wealthy three-star economies see more high-value ship types land, and the dominant species in the system biases which classes of hull show up. This is the entire mechanic behind S-class ship hunting: park in a good system, let ships cycle through, and check each arrival.

Multi-Tool Cabinet

Most stations have a wall cabinet displaying a single Multi-Tool for sale, and many also have a vendor offering one. The tool on offer is fixed for that station, so the type, class, and slot count do not change no matter how long you wait. Finding a good one is a matter of visiting many stations rather than waiting at one, which is covered in the S-class Multi-Tool guide.

Cartographer

The Cartographer trades Navigation Data for charts. Navigation Data accumulates almost by accident from crates in planetary buildings and manufacturing facilities, and it has no other real use, so there is no reason to hoard it.

Charts come in types that point at different things: crashed ships and freighters, ancient ruins and monoliths, abandoned buildings, distress signals, and settlements. Buy several at once, use one on the planet you are heading to, and the marker appears on your compass. Charts are consumed on use.

Scrap Dealer

The Scrap Dealer does three separate jobs. First, it scraps starships, breaking a ship down into Units plus salvage components and occasional upgrade modules, which is a genuine income method covered in the ship scrapping guide. Second, it sells Emergency Signal Scanners, the consumable that locates a crashed ship on the planet below. Third, it handles salvaged paperwork recovered from derelict freighters, including crew manifests, which is what lets derelict runs pay out properly.

The buy-scrap loop is straightforward: buy a cheap ship from a pad, scrap it, and sell the salvage. Whether it profits depends on the ship's price and what falls out.

Appearance Modifier and Teleporter

Not every station has an Appearance Modifier, but where one exists it is free to use and changes your character model, race, and colours as often as you like.

The station Teleporter connects to every station you have already visited and every base you have built with a base teleport module. It is the backbone of a fast travel network, and pairing station teleporters with base teleporters is the setup described in the teleporters and base networking guide. Note that goods carried through a teleporter travel with you, so a mining base one hop from a wealthy market is effectively a delivery pipeline.

How Stations Differ by System

Before the Orbital update, every space station looked identical inside. Orbital changed that. Station exteriors and interiors are now procedurally generated, so layout, colour, scale, and the arrangement of the internal spaces vary from system to system. The services are still there, but you may have to walk somewhere different to find them.

The other differences are economic rather than visual:

Station factor	Effect
Economy type	Sets which trade commodities are stocked and which sell at a premium
Wealth tier	Higher wealth means better stock, higher-value ship traffic, and stronger price modifiers
Dominant species	Biases the ship classes that land and the flavour of guild missions on offer
System conflict level	Affects mission types and pirate activity in the surrounding space

Outlaw Stations

Outlaw systems have their own station variant. The standard vendor lineup is partly replaced, the interior has a run-down smuggler look, and the key addition is the Contraband Agent, who deals in illegal goods that normal terminals will not touch. Outlaw stations are also where the smuggling and black market side of the economy operates, and pirate factions treat you differently there. The details of that whole system are in the piracy and outlaw systems guide.

A Visit Routine

Run this in order on every docking and a station stop takes about three minutes:

Sell your haul at the Galactic Trade Terminal, splitting very large stacks if the price is visibly dropping.
Check the Mission Board and take everything you can complete on your current route.
Check the Technology Merchant for S-class modules for whatever you are currently upgrading, and sell duplicate modules back for Nanites.
Scan the landing pads for ship class and slot count before you leave the pad area.
Check the Multi-Tool on display, since it is fixed and takes five seconds to rule out.
Buy charts from the Cartographer with whatever Navigation Data you are carrying.
Visit the Scrap Dealer if you are carrying an unwanted ship or need an Emergency Signal Scanner.
Refuel the Launch Thruster and Pulse Engine before undocking, since station docking restores nothing automatically.

FAQ

What can I do at a space station?

Sell and buy goods at the Galactic Trade Terminal, take repeatable missions from the Mission Board, buy upgrade modules with Nanites from the Technology Merchant, buy or trade ships that land on the pads, buy a Multi-Tool, exchange Navigation Data for charts at the Cartographer, scrap ships at the Scrap Dealer, spend guild standing, change your appearance where a modifier exists, and teleport to any station or base you have visited.

Where do I sell things?

The Galactic Trade Terminal on the station. It buys nearly everything. Prices depend on the system's economy type and wealth tier, and selling a large amount of one item in one place pushes that item's local price down, so split big hauls across stations. Planetary Trading Posts often pay slightly better than station terminals for the same goods.

How do I get charts?

Talk to the Cartographer and exchange Navigation Data for them. Navigation Data comes from crates and terminals inside planetary buildings, and it has no other significant use. Buy several charts at a time, then use the one matching what you are looking for while you are in orbit or on the planet.

Do all stations look the same?

Not since the Orbital update. Station exteriors and interiors are now procedurally generated, so layouts, colours, and internal architecture vary between systems. The same core services are present in almost every station, but their positions inside the station change.

What is different about an outlaw station?

Outlaw systems have a Contraband Agent selling and buying illegal goods, a rougher station interior, and a partly different vendor lineup from a standard station. They are the hub of the smuggling economy and the place to offload cargo that ordinary terminals will not accept.

Key Takeaways

Dock with a full hold, not an empty one. The trade terminal turns a planetside session into Units in under a minute.
Take Mission Board work before you leave, every time. Stacking missions across several stations is close to free income.
Look at the Technology Merchant on every station you enter, because the class of its stock is rolled per station and S-class modules are the point.
Watch the pads while you handle everything else. Ships land on their own, and the cost of checking one is a few seconds.
Spend Navigation Data at the Cartographer as it accumulates rather than letting it fill inventory slots.
Use the Scrap Dealer for any ship you do not intend to fly, and pick up an Emergency Signal Scanner if you are heading planetside.
Refuel your Launch Thruster and Pulse Engine before you undock, since nothing on the station tops them up for you.

No Man's Sky Space Station Guide: Every Vendor, Terminal & What to Do There