Just some additional tinfoil to go along with this great write up. The announcement of Starship One taking an unscheduled detour for classified purposes was released in the one or two articles immediately following its disappearance. Hopefully this article links properly.
community.elitedangerous.com
The timing of the article is very precise. I’m not sure if this emphasis on the time frame is indicative of a potential window of opportunity or not but interesting nonetheless. This is also where the unscheduled detour to Azaleach for classified reasons is mentioned.
Something that may or may not mean anything, the jump to Azaleach and the fact that Halsey’s sister is named Azalea. It could be something as simple as Halsey wanted to see a system named similarly to her sister hence the detour but why make that reason classified if that was the case?
This next bit of info is complete rumor and hearsay but I read that Rogue planets used to be implemented back in an Alpha and they’d rip you out of hyperspace if you jumped too close to one’s gravity well while going from system A to system B and a rogue was between the two locations before that mechanic was changed. Is this what really happened to Starship One?
Also the reporter that killed herself was not the only mysterious death around this time frame. At least one, maybe more, experts on the disappearance of The Highliner Antares met unfortunate deaths after Starship One went missing just as they were going to aid in the new disappearance, unless I’m misremembering.
Lastly, I distinctly remember an early dev video showing a dev jumping directly to a planet, not a star, not sure if it was shared here or elsewhere but I definitely think I’ll be taking some time to try to dig it up again.
Edit: I also forgot this: The original person of interest regarding Starship One’s potential sabotage is not the same suspect in the latest articles. Not sure if it means anything and I don’t have my easily searchable archive site anymore to find the articles mentioning the guys.