Dee O'Gee

Unless you've specialized in long-range combat, and especially if you're a beginner, you'll probably have to approach enemies closely before you have a chance of hitting them. You will need to train skills such as Sharpshooter or Missile Projection to improve your long-range combat capabilities; if you favor guns over missiles, you'll eventually want to improve your tracking to hit small and agile targets near your ship.

For now, though, approaching the target and hitting it from close range should work just fine!