Any target that you're given a mission for is within 2 jumps of some part of your territory, that's how the missions are designed. Of course, stars count as a jump as well

It might help to research the happiness techs. They decrease the penalty and increase happiness gain, so for any mission you do you can fail 4 or so (that's 2 hours of gameplay) and it will approximately even out. It's even better if you manage to get to 100 before completing some becomes an issue, because the AI won't break a cease fire until you drop below 35.. and that's a long long time if you only lose 7 happiness for each failed mission