Traveller: Cryptogaphy

After a glitch in the autopilot targeting system on our spaceship, we ran a full diagnostic on all systems and all files. During these scans we found single file that we are unable to move and that our ship's OS is having difficulty with to understand. So we are left with a fine cryptographic puzzle to learn the meaning of the file's content.

The referee was kind enough to provide us with a clue that would make the puzzle "easy": The code lies in the first 7 positions. Oh, and to make it really easy, looking at the first 15 will practically give it away.

The file
The contents of the file that we have found is:

SGVsbG8gd29ybGQuIFdob21ldmVyIGZpbmRzIHRoaXMgc2hpcCB3aW
xsIHByb2JhYmx5IGRpc2NvdmVyIHRoaXMgZXZlbnR1YWxseS4gQW5kIGJld2FyZ
SwgbmV3IG93bmVyLCBiZWNhdXNlIHRoaXMgdmVzc2VsIGlzIGN1cnNlZC4gRX
ZlciBzaW5jZSBJIGZvdW5kIGl0IGFuZCBnb3QgaXQgd29ya2luZywgSSd2ZSBoYWQ
gY29udGludW91cyBiYWQgbHVjay4gQW5kIG5vdyBJJ20gc3VyZSBJJ20gYmVpbm
cgZm9sbG93ZWQuIEx1cmtlcnMgaW4gdGhlIFNoYWRvd3MgYXQgVGFrZWRhLiB
BbGwgYmVjYXVzZSBvZiB0aGlzIHNoaXAuIEknbSBnb2luZyB0byBoaWRlIGl0LCBJI
GhvcGUgaXQgd2lsbCBnZXQgdGhlbSBvZiBteSB0cmFpbC4gSWYgeW91IGZvdW5
kIGl0LCBJJ2xsIHByb2JhYmx5IGJlIGdvbmUuIFNvIGdvb2QgbHVjayB3aXRoIGl0LC
BhbmQgZ29vZCBsdWNrIGZpbmRpbmcgc3BhcmUgcGFydHMuIE1vc3Qgb2Ygd
GhlbSB3b24ndCBmaXQuIElyb25pYywgYmVjYXVzZSBpdCdzIHZlcnkgbGlrZWx
5IHRoZXJlJ3MgYSBsYXJnZSBhbW91bnQgb2YgcGFydHMgYW5kIHVwZ3JhZGVzI
HJpZ2h0IGhlcmUgaW4gdGhpcyBzeXN0ZW0uIEJ1dCBJIHdvdWxkIG5ldmVyIGdvI
GJhY2sgd2hlcmUgSSBmb3VuZCB0aGlzIHNoaXAuIEZhciB0byBkYW5nZXJvdXMuIF
NvIGRvbid0IGxvb2sgaW4gdGhpcyBoZXJlIGNvbXB1dGVyLiBZb3Ugd29uJ3QgZml
uZCB0aGUgY29vcmRpbmF0ZXMgb2YgdGhlIEdhbGFjdGljIERyYWdvbidzIGxvY2F
0aW9uLiBJIG9ubHkgY2FyeSB0aGVtIGluIG15IHBlcnNvbmFsIGxvZy4gQWhyaXkh


Our approach
So far we have tried a number of things:

• Search for letterfrequencies, including bi- and trigrams
  
• Transpose the text a number of positions
  
• Try to interpret it as several filetypes
  
• Try to interpret it as meaningful content
  

The analyses were run with the tools available on this site.

I cast Alan Turing
So far we don't have a clue. We could really use this guy:

Update
As always, once you have the code, stuff is simple. I didn;t think of running it against more bases than binary, and hexadecimal, which obviously weren't the ones I was looking for. I completely forgot base 64. Running the text through a 64->ASCII converter we got the following message:

Hello world. Whomever finds this ship will probably discover this eventually. And beware, new owner, because this vessel is cursed. Ever since I found it and got it working, I've had continuous bad luck. And now I'm sure I'm being followed. Lurkers in the Shadows at Takeda. All because of this ship. I'm going to hide it, I hope it will get them of my trail. If you found it, I'll probably be gone. So good luck with it, and good luck finding spare parts. Most of them won't fit. Ironic, because it's very likely there's a large amount of parts and upgrades right here in this system. But I would never go back where I found this ship. Far to dangerous. So don't look in this here computer. You won't find the coordinates of the Galactic Dragon's location. I only cary them in my personal log. Ahriy!

Cool stuff :)