About research !

[Suicide Junkie]

If the planets are telling you NEVER for completion time, then you forgot to load population onto your colony ship.

What you need to do is build a cargo transport, and move some people from your homeworld over there.

If you do have people, your planet may be rioting.
Moving some troops to the planet will help, as will do things that make your people happy (winning battles, and having ships in orbit are good for most races)

[Baron Grazic]

Originally posted by capnq:
Yes, research and intelligence need Spaceports, too. I don't think storage facilities do.

You are correct - Storage Facilities work without a SpacePort.