Petrovelly said:
Ships animations are done in Blender (cycles engine). Planets are created from the combination of several NASA/Google Earth images in Photoshop. So they are basically 2D objects. At the end I mix it all in After Effects, apply some filters to make it look more like a movie and that’s it.

Nice Blender work, I’m also a fan of it. If you stick to simple camera and model movements, it will blend nicely with the original where needed.

I like your option to composite the scenes and not do it all in 3D.
That makes it look like the original. You are on the right path !