How can I shoot backwards?

When controlled by AI, I saw one of my ships shooting backwards. (It was fleeing, but the turret the gun was mounted on turned to shoot at the chasing enemy.)

Can I do this when controlling my ship with a mouse and keyboard? Normally when I use the w key to move forward, the ship follows the mouse cursor. So when I try to shoot at a target behind me, the ship begins to turn immediately. I haven't found any useful setting for this yet.

Solution 1:

There are three ways to shoot backwards:

1. Use the shift key to lock in your current path (you can still maneuver with the wasd strafe keys). This frees up your mouse to allow you to aim your turret in any direction.
2. Get in close enough to lock onto your target with your turrets. Once your turrets start firing, you can start circling around them with no problems as its tracking on the target at that point.
3. Turn on turret auto fire (Y key by default, or look under advanced tactics in the tactics menu while having a ship selected). Your turrets will automatically track and fire at nearby hostiles (including creeps).