The holidays are just around the corner and they’ve already been quite kind to Chris Roberts and his ambitious Star Citizen project. The space sim recently broke the $35 million mark just ahead of the holidays this week, unlocking the new Drake Herald ship.

Drake Herald – Knowledge is power, and one of the most valuable commodities is pure information: the 1s and 0s behind everything from UEC ledgers to Citizenship ratings. Whether it’s colonists struggling to stay in contact with the UEE’s central worlds or criminals trading in illicit data, there will always be a need to securely move data. The Drake Herald, small, armored ship, is designed to fit that need and safely get that information from Point A to Point B. Featuring a powerful central engine (for high speed transit and generating the power needed for effective data encryption/containment), advanced encryption software and an armored computer core, the Herald is unique among personal spacecraft in that it is designed to be easily ‘cleaned’ when in danger of capture. The Herald includes an array of heavy duty internal options for data protection, including redundant power subsystems and EMP shielding, and a high-powered broadcast array for data transmission.

While this month's planned release of the Dogfighting Module was delayed last week, fans can look forward to it coming in January as well as the $37 million stretch goal, which will unlock the Tanga system, s new area dubbed a stellar graveyard. You can read the latest Letter from the Chairman for all the latest details.

Tanga System – At the heart of an unusual rectangular planetary nebula (see reference), lies Tanga System. The inner planets engulfed the star entered the red giant phase. The expanded habitable zone unfroze a small world on the former outer ring and for several hundred million years made it habitable. Life began to emerge and was just reaching a primitive state when the star collapsed into a white dwarf, throwing the planet back into a deep freeze, then blasting the atmosphere away with the resulting planetary nebula. That’s how the system was found: Only two worlds (speculation that there could have been three to four more) but both are dead planets with no atmosphere.

In addition to the Drake Herald, Cloud Imperium announced a new holiday gift for the gamer in your life with Star Citizen digital gift cards. The cards come in $10, $25, $50, and $100 if you need a last minute gift for a PC gamer.

Last month Ten Ton Hammer's Xerin wrote about his thoughts on the vast crowdfunding juggernaut and the dangers of purchasing a promise in The Cult of Star Citizen, an article that prompted a response from Chris Roberts. Both are well worth a read if you’re on the fence about throwing some cash at Star Citizen yourself.

Source: Letter from the Chairman