Shinra No. 26

The Shinra No. 26 is the rocket piloted by Cid Highwind in Final Fantasy VII. It was one of the successful rockets developed by Shinra's Space Exploration Department. Because of a mishap that occurred inside the rocket during the day of the launch, it was aborted. The site of the aborted launch served as a landmark years later for Rocket Town.

Story
The Shinra No. 26 was developed before the beginning of the game. Cid was assigned as the rocket's main pilot, but when the launch time arrived, Shera noticed a leak in one of the oxygen tanks and stayed behind to fix it. The events unfold slightly differently in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- where the rocket's sabotage was actually caused by AVALANCHE, which sabotaged the rocket engines. In any case, Shera's presence in the rocket during launch caused Cid to abort the launch, crashing and damaging the rocket. Shinra abandoned the space project and Cid would blame the failure of his dreams on Shera and so treat her poorly.

Revealed in Before Crisis, Rufus Shinra was the one who recommended the the Space Program's cancellation, which was supported by the entire Shinra Executive Staff.

Later in Final Fantasy VII, Shinra plans to launch the Huge Materia with the Shinra No. 26 into space, right into Meteor. They hope the explosion to be great enough to destroy the Meteor to save the Planet. Cloud and his party fight through the Turk Rude and take control of the rocket. Palmer gleefully tells them the rocket is set to automatically launch, and launches them into outer space within the rocket. Before the party can escape, disaster strikes. The oxygen tank that failed Shera's inspection all those years ago explodes, pinning Cid under its debris. With Shera's help the party manages to free Cid. There is an escape pod in the back of the rocket, which allows the party to flee. Before the party can leave, the last Huge Materia can be rescued from the rocket.

Whether or not the Materia is rescued, the rocket still crashes into Meteor and creates a blinding explosion massive enough to be seen around the entire Planet. However, the Meteor is unaffected.

Code to the Huge Materia
To get the Huge Materia from the container, a code must be punched in. Cid will give hints as Cloud attempts to crack the code. If the player takes note of the hints the code can be solved before the timer expires. The actual code is:

Ship - Hallway
Senior Grunt x1

Outside

 * Attack Squad x2
 * Attack Squad x 2, Senior Grunt x1
 * Rude x1, Attack Squad x2

Trivia

 * A model for Shinra No.26 can be seen in the exhibition room in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.
 * One of the earlier test models for Shinra's space rocket can be seen in Sector 5 Church, crashed in through the ceiling.