One new DA feature that is hard to find and is not explained in the tutorial videos is the ability to launch your ships from orbit in any direction rather than always in the bottom right corner. Directed launch often makes the difference between colonizing a planet this turn or the next; which can (and in my games has) made the difference between the AI or I colonizing the planet.
I could not find the new controls for the directed launch and also tried launching when my orbiting ship was in the position I wanted to launch to. Finally, another player explained it to me in a private message.
Click on the colony with the ship in orbit. Look at the UI box at the bottom of the screen with general colony details on the left and the starport contents on the right. There is a very small box that looks like nine arrows pointing in different directions in the upper left corner of the starport contents (upper middle of the entire colony UI box). When you click on that box you will see arrows appearing around each square that border the planet (you should be zoomed in fairly close to see them well) from which you can select. Afterwards, all launches go to that square until you set a new direction. I hope that explanation is clear.