Look for the heading "Legacy Version (Free)." This is the 0.980 version. While it lacks the volumetric clouds and new ship simulator of the 0.990 Steam edition, it is still a fully functional universe simulator with 99% of the core features.
"Planets look like blurry blobs." Fix: The free version has "Auto-LOD." You must pause time (press Spacebar ) and wait 10-20 seconds for the textures to load fully. how to download space engine free