Stations go "Green", when you become friendly with the faction - or main group Empire/Fed etc. But when you become "Allied" you get greeted more politely (does not stop them ramming you and become wanted, as an unshielded Ana did to me while I was defending against a NPC pirate attack) the display changes on the LHS Contacts GUI window - the text remains yellow/orange but the bar (that turns red during combat) is immediately green - also the ships are automatically recognised - you will not need to scan them - their name / faction detail & status are automatically entered. I do not know if they need to be in the FOV - but often now I see ships populated without needing to target, also the highlight around the ship becomes green rather than yellow within the sensor range.