There's a new Star Control FAQ on Tiny Little Frogs as Brad Wardell fills us in a bit more on plans to bring back the space strategy series in a modern form. He explains the rights issues that will allow Stardock to use the name and concept, but not the alien races from the original games, which are the property of Activision. He says they consider the first two Star Control games canon, and they hold out the possibility they may some day be able to use the original aliens in another installement in the series, perhaps even as part of a collaboration with original developers, Toys for Bob (currently working on Activision's Skylanders). Their first Star Control reboot is apparently still far off, however, as the FAQ explains it is not due "for a while," noting that "the 25th anniversary of Star Control 2 is 2017." They also say they don't expect to release a commercial HD remaster of either of the first two games. Here's a bit on how they are handing adding new aliens to the game:

Q: How does Stardock plan to handle the new aliens?

A: The new Star Control universe will be broken up into "star clusters". The base game will include the "Home" star cluster which includes the Earthlings along with a dozen or more new aliens presenting their own challenges to the player.

Think of the 500 planet or so galaxy of Star Control 2 as being a star cluster in the new Star Control. In addition to providing a star cluster of this scope, we will also be including the tools for players to design their own ships (see GalCiv III), their own aliens, their own stories, star systems, star clusters, etc. Players can then literally make their own star clusters and upload them to add them to the Star Control universe. What aliens, stories, ships, and star systems people make will be up to them.