It seems like impossible not to trigger this bug.
I took on the outlaws at the top of a mountain and found a message on a datapad, then the objective "search for the message source"
The objective marker was on a landing pad in the valley below. I saw a shuttle waiting there with an outlaw, so I spammed my sticky-grenade gun until the outlaw died and the shuttle was destroyed.... but apparently that killed the quest.
Was I supposed to wait until I was in range to trigger the shuttle to do something so I could stop it instead of just stopping it and not hamstringing myself by letting it get away?
So stupid. Very poor design.