I want to be able to do the Utopia Expedition on the Fractal update, however when I try to start a new game the Utopia Expedition is not available. The game just says there are no expeditions available. What is needed to be able to play the Utopia Expedition on the GOG version of No Man's Sky?

If you are using Galaxy - Have you verified the installation? In Galaxy select No Man's Sky then select the slider next to Play then Manage Installation > Verify/Repair.

Just in case - did you check your version? The current version on GOG is 100867 and is in the lowest right corner of the launch screen.

EDIT: Are you using Galaxy or the Stand-Alone installers? First check to see if you have the most current version and if not:
1. If using Galaxy then you should be able to select the sliders then Check for updates.
2. If using Stand-Alone then at the top of this page under your user name the drop-down list has an option to select Games then No Man's Sky and you might as well do a full installation by downloading each of the five files for 4.12 and then running the executable which is the fifth file and smallest.

Good Luck

yep you definately need Galaxy to access the expeditions
as for the rewards at the anomoly i'm not sure, but i would assume they are also galaxy based

i do know you can take the saves offline (when you don't have access to the internet ,as without it galaxy won't work)
but that would mean installing NoManSky twice?

as said somewhere else their is a new patch (according to the nms website)

https://www.nomanssky.com/2023/03/expeditions-patch-4-12-1/

Bug fixes
Fixed a number of network-related crashes.
Fixed an issue that could cause controllers to disconnect when playing via Stxxx.

but as always we Gog players are yet to see it

Thanks for the help. I have never used GOG Galaxy before and therefore did not have it installed. I installed it and now my No Man's Sky shows the Utopia Expedition. Thanks much!

Yeah you need GOG Galaxy for every online feature NMS offers.
The offline GOG version of NMS doesn't include any online feature.