I know thee have been a lot of other good ideas mentioned to make ship activity more transparent (when ship icons show up, animations, status messages, lines of the route, etc.) which would all help with awareness of what ships are doing. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned (if I've missed it, forgive the reiteration) is estimated time enroute and estimated time of arrival (ETE and ETA respectively).

I might choose a different course of action if, when looking to send a ship to a destination, I knew it wouldn't arrive for another 4 hours. Also, on the global ship screen, it would be great to have that information for all active ships. (Harvester enroute to home planet, ETA 3:37 PM)

Maybe it's the pilot in me, but sending ships to a destination without basic information like time of arrival and duration seems like an important ommision.