First of all, I can’t be bothered linking every source, so I’ll just list what I remember hearing from official sources, mostly Rocketwerkz CEO Dean Hall.

• Current status: Active development. Some playable tests have been seen. According to the devs the first milestones have been reached: “universe simulator” and “yeeting around in the solar system”. These are currently being refined. The next milestone is parts building (not to be confused with ship building) to allow for easy additions or modification of parts from which ships can later be built.
• Platform(s): Depends on the popularity of the end result. The main development target is windows, but some of the devs are on other platforms, so porting is highly possible, just not a priority. It is worth noting that Rocketwerkz’ other games run fine via wine/proton.
• Engine: Developed in-house. The name is “Brutal framework”. Highly flexible and purpose-built for KSA. Seems extremely efficient and optimized with great multithreading. The name comes from the fact that “it’s quite brutal to use” (Citation by Dean Hall), in that you have pretty much raw access to Vulcan.
• Modding: Confirmed and highly prioritized
• Pricing/business model: Not set in stone, but Dean Hall has said on multiple occasions that he would like to have some sort of free access. This may or may not involve pay-what-you-like, freemium, or other models. Hall has expressed the desire to have the game funded via contributions, an distributedfor free via bittorrent. However, they will not be taking contributions before they have something playable.
• Multiplayer: Confirmed
• Early access: Unknown in the traditional sense. However, the intention is to have early playtests (free) available during 2025
• Interstellar travel: Confirmed
• Currently our real solar system is being used for everything, as it’s easy to find assets for it and it’sa known model they can test against. However, the intention is to have a more game-like system later.
• Similar to KSP in how maneuver nodes work, but with more QoL feature such as automatic calculation of transfer orbits, porkchop charts, and movement of maneuver nodes to best fit for intercept. These have been seen in gameplay.
• No Online-only or DRM
• Scripting and automation: “Absolutely! I’m a big fan of kOS”. Not surprising, as Stationeers (also by Rocketwerkz) has an implementation of MIPS for this purpose.
• Water buoyancy: “float and interact with water at minimum”. They just started working on the graphical aspect of water, and the physical aspect is still not 100% determined.