You’re probably going to love that freighter. It’s a real game changer. (Kind of OP, imo, but whatever). And yes and no. Just in case you want to keep that a surprise for your other playthrough, I’ll spoiler tag this: Expeditions advances a bunch of stuff at a faster pace, but freighters actually appear fairly early in every game mode. The first warp-in rescue event occurs after your fifth warp (if in an inhabited or formerly inhabited system), and recurs every five warps plus 3 hours cumulative play time. The first warp-in rescue event freighter is what’s known as a system freighter (smaller, variety of models), and subsequent rescue events are known as Capitals (much larger, only two basic models).