In a tweet:

watched Mouretsu Space Pirates 3: noise in space. SEEMS LIKE THE SUCCESSOR TO STARSHIP OPERATORS IS NOT HERE YET

But of course. For one thing, reportedly, Mr. Sato aimed to eliminate romance from Mouretsu Pirates. A bonehead move for sure. Remember Kyoichi Moriguchi and Harumi Mineo? Does Tatsuo Sato? It was his best anime, Shingu. As for Starship Operators, I remember only 3 things about it now:

1. Bullshit ending and "Truman"
2. Magically contrieved deus-ex ship combat
3. Sanri's scream -- the only redeeming feature of the series

Of course Mouretsu is not SP, duh. How could it be!