This expansion finally allowed players to explore and battle in ten sectors of outer space, in more than twenty types of starships from the era between Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, including familiar X-wings, TIE Fighters, and YT-1300s (same type as the Millennium Falcon), as well as new and never before seen ships created by the developers. It also added real-time space shooter elements to the game, which allowed for an interesting combination with the turn-based mode already featured in the ground-based. Jump to Lightspeed also added many space missions and four space-specific professions. Two races were also added: Sullustan and Ithorian.

The expansion added space combat. Characters could choose one of three factions in the new Pilot sub-profession: Rebel, Imperial, or Freelance. The playable sectors include the space surrounding the ten planets of the game as well as Kessel and "Deep Space." Combat is real-time and twitch-oriented like a first-person shooter and can be played with a joystick at the player's option. A new Artisan profession, Shipwright, was also introduced. This profession created ships, shields, armor, weapons, etc for players. They also have the ability to take looted components from space and reverse engineer them into better components.