I'm not sure exactly what causes this - Half the time, the ship's image actually will still show up.

I've saw this too, but could not reproduce. Thought it was a memory problem, but probably not.

Interesting update:

I've now got an asteroid as my large image: http://i.imgur.com/sSUJSbS.jpg

Going to keep experimenting to see if I can manipulate this at all. This is *after* having a blank image so maybe it could be a memory address problem

Update: Seems to change by system. eg: In Centauri, I have a blank image, but in Sol, I have a random asteroid image (changes when I gate). Sometimes I'll still get a blank image, though.

Possibly relevant, I get this debug output on games where the ship image doesn't appear: (some resources appear twice)

Edit:
Humanspace.jpg loads every time the galactic map is brought up, and the ship resources are loaded every time the player gates. This is pretty odd if not intentional. Note that the large image is not loaded, however.

06/29/2016 16:21:26 Created new game
06/29/2016 16:21:26 Starting new game.
06/29/2016 16:22:03 Loading image ResourcesScreenSnow.jpg for 61448.
06/29/2016 16:22:11 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUDShip_Wolfen.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:22:11 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUD_Wolfen.bmp for .
06/29/2016 16:22:11 Loading image ResourcesShieldsHUDDefault.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:22:11 Loading image ResourcesReactorDisplay.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:22:11 Loading image ResourcesWeaponsHUD.bmp for 61447.
06/29/2016 16:22:41 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUDShip_Wolfen.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:22:41 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUD_Wolfen.bmp for .
06/29/2016 16:22:41 Loading image ResourcesShieldsHUDDefault.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:22:41 Loading image ResourcesReactorDisplay.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:22:42 Loading image ResourcesWolfenGunshipHD.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:08 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUDShip_Wolfen.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:08 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUD_Wolfen.bmp for .
06/29/2016 16:24:08 Loading image ResourcesShieldsHUDDefault.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:09 Loading image ResourcesReactorDisplay.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:10 Loading image ResourcesWolfenGunshipHD.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:22 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUDShip_Wolfen.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:22 Loading image ResourcesArmorHUD_Wolfen.bmp for .
06/29/2016 16:24:22 Loading image ResourcesShieldsHUDDefault.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:23 Loading image ResourcesReactorDisplay.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:24 Loading image ResourcesWolfenGunshipHD.jpg for .
06/29/2016 16:24:24 Loading image ResourcesHumanSpace.jpg for .

More helpful information:

-Spamming the "s" key when gating to another system will bring up different HUD elements as the large image. Since these are loaded every time the player gates (see debug output above) this is definitely related. eg: http://i.imgur.com/rD2S0rU.jpg

-Possibly related: http://ministry.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=56992

This is a regression in 1.7 Alpha 2. It is fixed in the (upcoming) 1.7 Alpha 2a release. Thank you!