Did they? Somehow I missed that- or assumed it was for some other reason... or maybe I'm blocking it out.

After 30 years of vacuum ships with rudders and retractable landing gear, space warships painted white, "targeting computers" that can't hit another ship in plain sight about 10 ship-lengths away, and ships that meet in space ALWAYS sharing a "local vertical" for no apparant reason, I guess I'm getting numb to it.