Here are 2 videos showing progress manipulating a ship.

The first shows how system activates the good thrusters at the good time, depending on player inputs.
More explanation here : The physical ship
Proto1 : Thrusters physic

The second video shows player and enemies ships. You are the "big" ship top left, and enemies are the smaller ones. They try to face you (in order to fire sometime), and stay at a reasonable distance.
To do this, they use the same commands as the player : Turn left/right, forward and backwards (they do not strafe atm). Of course, the result is quite different depending on where the thrusters are placed ! You may notice the difference between the small 6 thrusters ship & the bugger square ship with less thrusters...
Proto2 : Ennemy ships AI

Hope you like this, I'm really excited about what this game could be in the future ^^