Don't get your hopes for Q1 EA too high.
Game is progressing nicely, but it's still missing too many core features for public release.
And even though EA should't mean "ready for casual gamer", general public will expect fully functional game. Just because of all the other games that changed the meaning of EA by remaining in it for years.
Bad first impression is hard to fix later, so SB will probably push EA at least until we get fully functional stations, functional economy (buying with parts, auction house buy orders), better faction/ownership management and more user-friendly ship controls.