first, welcome.
second. to keep MPE from crashing like that, you have to load the CORRECT py. I still make this goof, myself. there are two scripts with the exact same name, usually. the "ship" script (which tells the game that a ship exists), and the actuall ship's hardpoint
the one you want will usually be in Scripts ->Ships ->hardpoints. the one in straight scripts/ships is the "ship" script, not the one you wanna use.
someone should be along shortly to give a better explination.