Free Stars is being made by the original creators of the series, Paul Reiche and Fred Ford. They had nothing to do with the SC3 or Origins.

The reason why it’s not using the Star Control name is because the IP ownership around the whole thing is messy. The short version is that the original creators owned the rights to the universe, but Atari owned the rights to the Star Control name.

When Atari went bankrupt, Stardock bought the name. They thought they’d bough the universe. This resulted in Stardock spending the next couple of years trying trying to use the courts to bully Paul and Fred into turning over the rights to them and generally being dickheads.

This finally ended in a settlement and worm on Free Stars has been happening quietly for the last couple of years.