It's the only planet that's colonizable within ~6 sectors, and the systems nearby have a decent amount of resources. (My race has very high gravity requirements, 2. 5-4. 5 so colonies are not the most common things to find at the best of times at any rate. ) I was under the impression that orbital habitats contributed to the population in a way that corresponds with the colony cost? If not, excellent, kinda. Good to know if I need the option in the future. I guess most of my misconceptions were that I thought that orbital terraformers required free manufacturing population. They don't, so I'm slowly on my way to make a second bastion of civilization.