What does the "Planet is a space station" checkbox box in the spöb actually do? I assumed that it just determines which STRs Nova displays when asking landing clearance, but does it have any other effects I might need to know about?

Thats pretty much it. It also affects the hail dialogue for the spöb, i think, but im not sure.

It also forces the spob to show up as a small box on the radar, regardless of what size its sprite is.

Edwards

And it makes a really great beef strogonov.