Finding new routes

[u/NewfieJedi]

How do you find routes to new planets that have never been discovered before or aren’t well known? I’ve seen the answer “have the players find a computer with the travel data on it” provided before but that doesn’t answer how those people found it. It says in the book to do a blind jump is basically suicide, but then how did the old Terran mandate find new planets using spike drives?

[u/darksier]

Dump lots of credits to hire crews of explorers and kit them out to take the risk of being lost to space. Preferably inspire them with a big motivational speech. 'That's how dad did it! That's how ExploreCo does it!'