Set up:

PCs are crew of a salvage ship/ jump tug

Possible missions:

bid on a UPF contract to deliver new engine to uncharted location X for Space Fleet ship and help fix it.

secure derelict hull and bring it to Boneyard for sale and reclamation.

Treasure hunt: researcher has idea that they have assembled enough clues to locate ship Y

This could involve getting access to computer Z to access its logs. Computer Z is at Boneyard waiting to be sold, already sold and waiting to be installed, sold and gone.

SW1 era derelict.

Sathar hulk derelict (star Law and Space Fleet, are by law required to be notified.

What if a legit derelict has a sathar scout ship slammed into it?

Mysterious cargo on derelict has a cryo chamber with a sleeping passenger. Passenger has secrets and people want her dead or captured. PCs need a reason to want to help her. (River from Firefly)

Maybe PC starts with a quest to locate the derelict ship Y knowing his sister is in cryo on it. This is his secret. He must protect his sister NPC and gains exp bonus for doing so. If he can convince other PCs to adopt his protect the NPC quest they share in the bonus.

Sathar agent hires the PCs to do job X, job x  is out in the black and there is a sathar crewed ship involved. maybe a sathar tubed brain?

EDIT 1: This could be a bean counting sort of campiagn- paying down the loan on the ship, paying for supplies and consumables.

Being tempted to trade in weapons salvaged from ships, black market sort of things and risk problems with militia, Space Fleet or Star Law.

Being leaned on by pirates to bring in a prise as if it was a derelict pirates won't really pay the PCs any money for it- do it or we kill you sort of negotiation.

I like the idea of side quest for this

PC joined crew to locate derelict that his sister is in cryo on and rescue her.

PC joined crew to hide from long arm of the law and looking for chance to clear his name.

PC's Mother was Space Fleet or Militia and is blamed for X, PC tried to follow in her footsteps but was expelled from accademy for brawling with jerks that cast aspersions on the name of the mother. ended up on salvage crew. Secret is that issue with the mother and prickly about it obviously a derelict could turn up with clues to exonerate the mother. but powerful forces wont want that to happen.

PC was a pirate. They were part of crew Y on ship Z and were a plant on freighter or star liner X. the job went sideways and as far as crew Y knows the PC is dead. If pirates discover PC is still alive they will lean on him/her for info for scores black mail that they will reveal the identity of PC to her present crew and or authorities. PC would love to destroy any and all evidence of her involvement with the pirates which would require wiping of data bases on the pirate ship. Perhaps she was a dupe believing that her new boyfriend loved her and so she carried a tracker onto the star liner. the pirates slaughtered passengers and she excaped via life pod. she has changed her name and gone into hiding from the pirates since they might want her dead as a living witness that could finger them.

Need to have some WoWL style freighter searches that turn up nothing to intersperse with actual planned adventures. In other words some derelict recovery that is not very exciting.

Practical things the PC could and should do but if they dont thats too bad:

run scan with energy sensors- heat source on a derelict should cause they to question why.

not trade in sathar tech or artifacts- its illegal but very profitable.

search and clear a ship first. Second might be deal with anything that might explode- old degraded ordinance, fuel etc.

Vihm mascot?

Gorlian navagator?

Zethra engineer?

River from Firefly analog? (mentalism)

Rinny from AD sample adventure. Sample adventure- tie in; locate and salvage Hepplewhite crash site.

Ship is decommissioned UPF Frigate or Destroyer with grapples. and lander vehicle- shuttle. could have a digger shuttle reconfigured with robotic arms as a work pod on steroids? work pods. large launch. most weapons were stripped from the ship. Need a deck plan.

Pros: profile of the ship might let PCs decieve someone that they are a real frigate or destroyer

and life support plant will be over sized for military crew

OR

Jump tug with hab module (corsair container- except instead of the corsair fighter it has a shuttle)

Use large freighter deck plan from KHs as the forward section of the jump tug, the corsair container deck plan, an appropriate shuttle deckplan and cobble up a quick aft section of the ship.

Pros: easiest to get the deck plan.

and can add modles (cargo and hab modules) to the trunk so it could pick up cargo runs and exploration missions for quick cash.

Need to know the cost in credits for operation of ship for a defined period of time- week or day

cost of fuel/per jump.

need to track life support plant output: give it an efficentcy rating

Need to track water recyler output: x ammount of liters of water per day.

Need a system for dicing for things breaking on ship this will be influenced by:

Cleaning- certain ammount of sweeping, mopping, painting etc keeps the ship clean and prevents problems. X# of being hours must be done per week or breakdown roll is modified +Y%

fixing of stuff: certain ammount of general maintenance must be done per week by technicians or break down roll is modified by +Z%. not this is none specific maintenance-

Ship has a level 2 maintenance robot but its in serious need of overhaul and replacement of worn parts it can do the cleaning but requires pampering by a technician or it breaksdown. I

Player actions can change water recycling plant out put, life support effeciency etc.

Each gaming week would have a report: LS efficiency, Engines efficiency, Money available, fuel useage, Consumables (food), Consumables (spare parts). Current mission contract- money they will make for current job Current Mission expenditures- cost of fuel, consumables, loan repayment but not wages - PCs get a share of profit and a job could become unprofitable.

A player with appropriate skill can spend work hours on improving engine efficiency: it requires X nubmer of work hours by PC to make a skill roll. Failure means he lacks a crucial part (techno babble from star trek) that must be obtained or engine efficiency cannot be improved. Every such skill check will use a random about of spar parts consumables- could be a few could be a lot the dice will decide.

spare parts consumables can be obtained from a salvaged wreck: by character with appropriate skill spending an hour and skill check success leads to a roll for points of spare parts consumable that can be added to ships inventory but roll is weighted toward low numbers with limited luck rolls for higher results.

However ever hour of stripping a wreck impacts the sale price at the salvage station and wreck must be Frontier technology not sathar or other.