If it's possible, I think it would be great to have some sort of function to set the player ship to follow another ship automatically. I've found that especially during the Korolev escort missions it can get a little annoying having to constantly adjust my ship's heading and thrust to stay with the ...

I can definitely recommend Downbelow Station. It is a great book. I looked at the wikipedia page and found out there are others in the series that follow after it. Gonna have to give those a read.