Frontier Developments’ crowdfunded interstellar exploration game Elite: Dangerous has reached the beta stage, and now offers players a greater number of explorable areas and fully functional trading economies, among other significant improvements.

Elite: Dangerous Beta 1 features 55 star systems, and marks the debut of the Viper heavy fighter and Lakon Type 6 medium trader ships. Multiplayer has also been overhauled with the introduction of friend lists, matchmaking, text and voice chat, and private group sessions.

Access to current and future Elite: Dangerous betas can be purchased as part of a $75 pre-order package.