Well, obviously I had to save. But I didn't have to back-track to a save except when I got killed by something (ie, early encounters with probes, which totally blew up my pathetic Cruiser and/or mothership until I figured out how to deal with them) or because I finished playing for the day.
Never really had to 'backtrack' because of any bad mistakes. Even got the Shofixti to join eventually, though that was more 'cos I was feeling sorry for the guy and couldn't bring myself to blow up his sad, lonely little ship when I ran into him the first time...