I think that was a you issue, Banzai, no offense! The game is specifically designed to be incredibly easy to fly anywhere, you can't even crash. I can't remember whether the control system changed a lot over the years, but nowadays it's a kind of loose fly-by-wire system. You use the mouse to move a crosshair and the ship orients itself to wherever the crosshair is looking.
If anyone feels like giving it another go, it's much easier these days to get up and running than it used to be. You shouldn't have to go far to gather everything you need to repair your ship, and everything can be found easily either by using the visor (hold F and pan) or the scanner (hit C and tag whatever resource you need to get guidance to it).
Once you repair your ship, the universe is your oyster.