Did you watch that planet? If they request luxuries, pirates could bring them. I have seen pirates solve AI caslon issues early on, with no smuggling mission in play...
If you had no ships, how did you get hold of it?
Twas me homeworld ... Doubt pirates deliver without spaceport ...
What has the spaceport to do with anything? Colonies book and need stuff, not spaceports. Although spaceports are delivery points if they exist. Which is easily seen with who freighter work for with the new "red vector" change.
You are able to deliver without spaceports.
A bit strange when you think about it, since frieghters have to be built in space, yet are able to land on planets.
As for colony culture, I don't really know the mechanics for how exactly it works, and nor does Galactopedia seem to know exactly either. It just seems to go up naturally through trade, without any population limits.
Colony culture was explained by Elliot in the quote. It is the same as development and they need some size and 10 luxuries, and a few bonuses exist.
The question is if a colony with no luxuries can have 100% development (culture) (and additional bonuses for racial, ruins, wonders, ultra-rares). The claim above was yes, I am skeptical, but don't know.
Freighters does of course not dock at colonies, they stay in orbit. Smaller craft has to fetch the goods, which makes it less efficient than a spaceport. This fits with the current implementation, where colony docks are less efficient than spaceport docks. That is how I imagine it, anyways.
