SS Tsiolkovsky
Class:	Oberth-class
Registry:	NCC-53911
Owner:	United Federation of Planets
Operator:	Starfleet
Status:	Destroyed (2364)

The SS Tsiolkovsky (NCC-53911) (Cyrillic: К. Э. Циолковский) was a Federation Oberth-class science vessel that was in service with Starfleet in the mid-24th century. Tsiolkovsky was built at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, USSR and commissioned in 2363, on stardate 40291.7.

In 2364, the Tsiolkovsky was assigned to observe the collapse of a red giant star. During that mission the crew fell victim to a form of polywater intoxication. After losing contact, Starfleet ordered the USS Enterprise-D to investigate the fate of the vessel and its 80 crew members. The Tsiolkovsky was discovered adrift in space, its bridge open to space due to an open emergency hatch, with all hands lost. When the Enterprise crew became infected with the same virus, and was in danger from a stellar core fragment, they bounced a repulser beam off the Tsiolkovsky, which pushed the Enterprise away from the fragment, providing the necessary time needed to restore power to the engines and warp away. While the Enterprise survived, the Tsiolkovsky was destroyed. (TNG: "The Naked Now")

See also Edit

• SS Tsiolkovsky dedication plaque
• SS Tsiolkovsky personnel

Oberth-class starships
USS Biko • USS Cochrane • USS Copernicus • USS Grissom • USS Oberth • USS Pegasus • SS Tsiolkovsky • SS Vico • USS Yosemite • Unnamed

Background Edit

The SS Tsiolkovsky was named after the 20th century Russian space scientist, Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky. (Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 527) The dedication plaque listed the name "K.E. Tsiolkovsky", (albeit with some characters misrendered – the plaque actually reads "К. З. ЦИОПКОВСКИЙ", which is "K.Z. TSIOPKOVSKY" in the Cyrillic alphabet), whereas Captain Picard identified it as the SS Tsiolkovsky. This fits modern naval practice of occasionally referring to a ship named after a person by just the surname.

This was one of only a handful of Starfleet ships not established to have the prefix "USS" before the name, as "SS" is used instead. While no explanation was tendered in the episode, the plaque identified Tsiolkovsky as a Starfleet registered vessel (with an NCC number), and there was a Starfleet crewmember's corpse aboard. Its possible calling it "SS" instead of "USS" mirrors a current US Navy convention of "de-commissioning" a ship on loan to another (non-Navy) agency, with an identical change of name prefix to "SS", "USNS" or none at all.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia listed this ship as the USS Tsiolkovsky.