A few useful corrections and additions to a great article:

1. It doesn't take 240 seconds for the game to load. It is already loaded at that point. The 240 seconds are so that you can check out your crew, cargo, registration and station news from the bottom menu. If you click on dock, It will dock you immediately.
2. I've running a Special Offer: Double your money back if you try eXode and don't like it for a while (and am likely to continue it for a while) -- so anyone can try eXode risk-free. Details are at the bottom of my post Economics & Rewards in EXODE and Splinterlands
3. The ship's stats always include how much it can carry in terms of crew, equipment, cargo and passengers. The text tells about each ship's special abilities.
4. The most important part of Origins is what faction they are. The major factions are Civilian, Criminal, Military and Scientific. If a ship has a major faction (or factions), it can generally only be used by that faction (Exception = Drachian Mantis). If an officer, crew member or passenger has a major faction, they can only be recruited by that faction. While what/who you can recruit is most critical, Origins also have special abilities.
5. Character stats determine how well and, often more importantly, how fast they carry out specific tasks. Details on this are on the Evacuation Commands page of the wiki. There is A LOT of information on the wiki (and it would help if new players like yourself would tell us what you couldn't find so we can improve it).