SS Tsiolkovsky The SS " Tsiolkovsky " ( NCC - 53911 ) , also known as К . Э . Циолковский , ( Romanized from Cyrillic : K . E . Tsiolkovsky ) was a 24th century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . The " Tsiolkovsky " was built at the Baikonur Cosmodrome , USSR and commissioned on stardate 40291 . 7 . History . Eight month s prior to stardate 41209 , in 2363 , 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 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 " - D crew became infected with the same virus , and was in danger from a stellar core fragment , they bounced a repulsor beam off the " Tsiolkovsky " , which pushed the " Enterprise " - D away from the fragment , providing the necessary time needed to restore power to the engines and warp away . While the " Enterprise " - D survived , the " Tsiolkovsky " was destroyed . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The " Tsiolkovsky " was " " named for Earth scientist , whose work formed much of the theoretical basis for his world ' s early exploration of space . " " ( ) In previous editions of the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " ( 3rd ed . , p . 527 ) , Tsiolkovsky was identified as a Russian space pioneer . Dedication plaque . While the ship was called the S . S . " Tsiolkovsky " or the " Tsiolkovsky " in the script and in dialogue , the dedication plaque listed the name of the ship in Cyrillic as " К . Э . Циолковский " , or " K . E . Tsiolkovskii " transliterated with , albeit with some characters misrendered – the plaque actually reads " К . З . ЦИОПКОВСКИЙ " , or " K . Z . TSIOPKOVSKII " after Romanization . A copy of the plaque was sent to the which is located in Tsiolkovsky ' s home town , Kaluga , Russia . ( ) The " Star Trek Encyclopedia " listed this ship as the USS " Tsiolkovsky " . The SS prefix was used in the dialogue . The dedication plaque suggests that the name prefix was not part of the official name of the ship . While this is unusual , there are other examples such as the " Raging Queen " . The ship was listed as a Starfleet registered vessel with an NCC number in the plaque and there was a corpse wearing a Starfleet uniform on board . Registry . The registry number on the studio model was originally not discernible on - screen in standard definition version of the episode . When the high definition copy of the footage was rendered for the remastered version of the episode , it was discovered that the model had the registry " NCC - 640 " , carried over from its previous use as the in . Michael Okuda remarked years later in this respect , " " I seem to recall that " Grissom " may have been relabeled to serve as another ship ( the " Copernicus " ? ) in " Star Trek " III or IV . I didn ' t try to relabel the model for ' The Naked Now , ' partly because we realized that the existing registry would not be legible in standard - def video , but also because we were all so insanely busy at the time that no one could take on an additional project that wasn ' t likely to be seen on the screen . " " The number was digitally changed to its correct one from the dedication plaque in the first full side view establishing shot . Unfortunately , the digital artist overlooked the previous scenes and the later scene when the stellar core fragment smashes into the ship , as it there still carries the original , now discernible , registry number .