Satellites are deployables that can be bought at shipyards, wharfs and equipment docks and then dropped at any point in space.

Satellites:

• reveal ships in range
• continually update trade offers of stations in range

Satellite and Advanced satellites do the same thing, but Advanced have a longer range.

Scan range

Satellites have a scan range. Any ship that enters that range will be visible in the map. (Ships and stations you own also have a scan range, with the same effect.)

Trade offers

Stations publish trade offer information to their local environment. When you discover a station while exploring, you receive and can see/use current trade offers from that station.

Without a satellite covering a station, this trade information you get by flying near the station expires after about 6 hours. After that, you can’t tell ships to trade with the station since you no longer know what trades it is offering.

Having the station within range of a satellite (normal or Advanced) constantly updates trade info for that station.

If you prefer not to deploy satellites, ships can be given the “Revisit known stations” order and/or default behavior to make them fly to stations and update trade offer information. (See the Ship Orders section for information on assigning default behaviors to ships.)