OP may or may not be long gone, but I would say, since the bases of the original question were covered, to check out the artists/bands Sula Bassana, Oresund Space Collective, Stone Oak Cosmonaut, Hidria Spacefolk, etc.

This was very helpful to me for my space rock research and pleasure:

Psychedelic/Space Rock, a progressive rock music sub-genre

I've never got around to listening to Gong for some reason.

I think Boo Boo sent me Camembert Electrique like 4 years ago or something.

Gong is a very interesting band as it's had so many line-up changes and have so many off-shoot bands (the "Gong family" of bands). The amount of musicians which have been involved in Gong in some form is pretty amazing. Daevid Allen is of course also an interesting character, definetly one of the more charming musical weirdos, the sort who will stop mid-song during a concert to tell you about the strange thought which suddenly occurred to him.

I have to admit that drug induced psychedelic rockery is not on my favourite list of musical delights, so my favourite incarnation of Gong is (still) actually the one led by Pierre Moerlen which also featured the highly virtuosic Allan Holdsworth on guitar and the brilliant Didier Malherbe on saxophone. Pierre Moerlen's Gong was more or less straight up Jazz Fusion with a lot of (wonderful) melodic percussion.

Sorry if this seems like a plug, but I'm actually holding a little writers contest on my site where the winner can win a Best of Daevid Allen album. Gong fans might wanna check it out :)

You cannot go wrong with the first four or five Hawkwind albums to begin with. Robert Calvert's Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters is very good too. By Gong, Camembert Electrique and Angel's Egg are pretty good. Steve Hillage's solo work from the seventies is excellent while Khan are not bad either. I also recommend Ozric Tentacles who are very much in the tradition of Steve Hillage.

Actually, reading the OP (even if he's long gone), he posted because he's interested in space rock. For Gong, I think that should make You the best album to start with.

You - Gong, fantastic Canterbury scene
I never really got into Hawkwind though.

The only Hawkwind album I'm really familiar with is Warrior on the Edge of Time and, while I like it, it's overall impression to me is that it's alright, but nothing spectacular. I'm not sure how representative it is of the rest of their discography.

Not sure what's been mentioned so far, but with Gong it has to be Camembert Electrique and for Hawkwind In Search of Space is where to start. If the OP or anybody else wants another great band who had a psychedelic/space rock feel to their music then it has to be the Pink Fairies one of the most unique bands of the early 1970s, their debut Never Never Land is a classic.