I really liked this. It is a mellow space exploration game with some combat and some ship building and a whole lot of great Sci-Fi sprinkled through it. The combat is not too difficult. The ship building is very intuitive. There is a log with a search feature that will help you immeasurably if you get lost in your quest. It kind of reminded me like Endless Sky (a fantastic game) but a lot more chill.
There is a newer version https://www.gog.com/en/game/starcom_unknown_space
But since the first one comes on sale and has 90% of the newer one, I would go for the older one first.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/starcomnexus