It’s said they plan to add more realism to the ships being able to manage oxygen, power, weapons etc independently. That said the switches and stuff will eventually be fully interactable and I’m sure you could accidentally blow up your ship if you do something wrong. Plus given the depth of every other system/mechanic/gameloop thats planned for SC it at the very least dresses up to look like a simulator.
But i digress. Keep Flight Sim on the ground…relatively speaking…
heck why don’t CIG and Asobo work together and put a Jump Point past Pluto and when you fly through it, it loads Star Citizen…
We’re talking about MSFS2020, not 2040.
The free simulator FlightGear has a free, very realistic Space Shuttle you can take through the entire process, from launch to landing! The documentation and knowledge required to do this is considerable and the model is constantly being updated with additional features and capabilities. I believe it is being used by a museum or two as their chosen Shuttle simulator.
Space Shuttle - FlightGear wiki
FlightGear, by the way, has come a long way in recent years (addition of OSM buildings, photoscenery download capability, a basic ATC, and VR, for example) and will soon be going to a new process for scenery generation (WS3.0) which should enhance it considerably and make scenery updates much easier and quicker. There are things FlightGear can do that other simulators can’t, or at least, don’t!
Give it a try! The price is right!
P.S. Be forewarned, you need a pretty hefty machine to run it with the Space Shuttle add-on!
Here are a couple videos:
Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) with real guidance algorithms - Flight Gear
FlightGear - Approach of Space Shuttle
You can easily exclude other developers on this as it’s a hard coded limit 
However spaceflight was teased in some way on one of the 40th anniversary Videos while Jörg was walking through the Smithsonian - at least he said that they may go all mad to bring the Space Shuttle at some point:
Hehe. Well, if we’re doing that then we also have to have a planet you can land on that loads Minecraft.
What else does Microsoft “own” now?
Someone on YouTube claims Asobo plans on bringing air to air combat in MSFS in the future. I don’t know if that is true or not.
I’m thinking that a Combat Sim would have to be a whole different game. Just as the this ‘Space Update’ idea would be a different game. This Sim is geared more towards civilian/commercial aviation.
Not that it’s a bad idea though. I’d love to see Microsoft come out with a Combat Sim and maybe even a Space Sim. I just don’t see any of them coexisting in MSFS-2020.
I think Microsoft eventually going have to expand the sim from its current stage in order to make it more profitable. Unless they have already set boundaries for the sim.
You’re right about expanding the Sim in some way. Maybe adding missions will help. I really don’t see combat being introduced at any time.
The overall engine could make an excellent combat sim and there could be cross benefits. If a combat sim were introduced that used the cloud backend it could increase the revenue stream for MS.
No need to have the flight sim and combat sims cross. I’m sure the kids in their fighters would be picking us GA flyers off all the time otherwise.
As far as space goes. It would be tough to compete with Kerbal Space Program. Kerbal requires a much higher skill set than MSFS. Kerbal has orbital mechanics, engineering, construction, design, science, atmospheric flight, humor and economics.
Maybe my dream of flying the Fenix over the Mars surface will become true some day… maybe.
But it needs new engines for the different atmosphere gas mixture!
It needs not only new engine - it needs a whole different plane!
be great if it did, it already has gravity and that is about the only thing that matters when outside the atmosphere… even if it was just an empty black space, be fun to try and blast into different types of orbits and try to nail a re-entry and glide to land!
The game is Pegi 3 and the F-18 doesn’t even have the missiles represented so we can forget about a combat sim within MSFS.
Microsoft and Asobo talked about a space shuttle in a Q&A.
It´s just a few modifications…
The Airbus is already airtight but get´s a pressurized cabin by the turbines. This system is no longer working very well in the thin Mars atmosphere that´s why the Fenix now needs a N1 fan with 3 meters of diameter driven by a tesla motor (because burning kerosene and therefore driving N1 by a turbine is not possible on Mars). Tesla Motors and Elon Musik will take care of the new Fenix engines because we must think wider than “optimizing the kerosene-burn of conventional engines” now while conquering and colonizing Mars!
The necessary oxygen inside the cabin will be made in a chemical way just like in the 787.
The roots of the wings must be broadened similar to the A380 wing design to get enough lift in the thin Martian atmosphere.
And the Fenix needs a new offroad bushflying field pack (broad gear with many wheels and with soft tires etc.) because the Fenix will start and land in a sandy desert for a few years until the first airports are build on Mars.
I could get that Fenix Mars-ready with a few modifications 
Darkstar is as close as we’re likely to get any time soon.
For a much better, space-oriented sim, I suggest Kerbal Sapce Program (which is great and MUCH deeper than it appears at first - I’ve got over 2,000 hours in it since 2013). For a more “historical spaceflight” sim, I suggest REENTRY, which is quite good but a bit obtuse to learn. It’s very historically accurate, however. https://reentrygame.com/
Another one that is well-regarded by a niche audience is ORBITER, though I’ve never tried it myself: http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/
In Kerbal, you could build an Airbus for Mars, but the needed energy for the ∆V to get it there would be a challenge.
Probably better off with SpaceX Starships. 
Atmospheric flight is better for this sim…plus, I’m afraid of heights.
