I was just in the newbie zone. I bought a ship and some NPCs. I set my NPCs to squad groups of 3 each. But, when I left the newbie zone, only my immediate team came with me. Are my other 6 NPCs lost forever or can I get them back?

You can’t go back to the tutorial zone. You can submit a support ticket to ask an Asim to see if they will help you, but I believe the quest warns you that everything has to be partied with you to take of off of the tutorial world. In the long run it won’t matter as you can get a lot more money pretty quickly and replace those few NPCs.