Charybdis The explorer ship Charybdis was a mid - 21st century NASA exploratory shuttle . ( ) History . The " Charybdis " was launched from Earth on July 23 , 2037 , under the command of Colonel Stephen G . Richey . The ship was Earth ' s third manned attempt to travel beyond the Sol system . During the mission , NASA lost telemetry from the shuttle when it was moved from the Sol system to the distant Theta 116 system . In the process , the ship was destroyed and the entire crew except for Colonel Richey were killed . Richey awoke to find himself in an advanced simulation of the Todd Matthews novel " Hotel Royale " built on the surface of Theta VIII . He continued to live there for the rest of his life . In 2365 , the debris of the " Charybdis " was discovered in the upper atmosphere of Theta VIII by a Klingon cruiser passing by near the system . The remains of the ship were investigated by the . A piece of the debris was beam ed aboard for analysis . It contained the American flag and NASA logo . Based on the analysis , the shuttle had been destroyed by molecular disintegration of the hull , similar to weapons fire . Richey had conjectured in his journal , that was found on the planet , that an alien lifeform may have created the " Hotel Royale " simulation for him under the assumption that it was what Richey considered to be the ideal world , possibly as compensation for having introduced a contamination into the shuttle that had killed all personnel but Richey . ( ) Appendices . Background information . In the real world , the NASA " worm " logo that appeared on the ship debris was retired in 1992 , three years after the episode first aired . The original mission patch for " Charybdis " used in the broadcast version of " The Royale " was a reuse of the mission patch for the " Apollo 17 " lunar mission , the last to take men to the moon . The names listed on the patch ( " Cernan " , " Evans " , and " Schmitt " ) are for Commander Eugene Cernan , Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt , and Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans ; fictional mission commander Steven Richey was not listed . When " The Royale " was remaster ed for the TNG Season 2 Blu - ray release , the mission patch was revised to eliminate the " Apollo 17 " crew names from the design - the patch now shows the words " NASA " and the mission motto " " First beyond the Solar System " " in place of the crew names . From the , " " In Greek mythology , Charybids was a sea monster who was once a human woman , the daughter of , but was banished to the ocean , where she sometimes manifested as a deadly whirlpool . . . In the remastered episode , the patch was changed slightly . Mike retained the basic design of the Apollo 17 patch , which was the work of legedanry space artist , added the name and mission of the " Charbydis " , and softened the face to suggest Charbydis ' s form as a human woman . The galaxy in the original patch was enlarged to suggest an ocean whirlpool . " " An unused okudagram was released in " " . It provided further details on the ship , crew , and mission . The space vehicle " Charybdis " was equipped with a block D gas - core fission reaction propulsion system . Complete crew complement on the mission was fifteen . Richey was given the middle initial G . The ship was equipped with hibernation systems . The ship ' s extrasolar survey mission objectives included the survey of deep extra solar environment to distance of 100 au , interaction of the solar magnetic field at heliopause , long - duration crew habitation , and a USAF electric fields experiment module adaptability study in an interagency co - operation . NASA lost contact with the " Charybdis " following the apparent failure of the ship ' s telemetry system on February 7 , 2038 . The official NASA report read : " " Vehicle systems at telemetry cutoff indicated thrust abnormality . Vehicle attained 12× solar escape velocity 2 . 56 hours earlier than planned . Assumed vehicle was lost with consumables run out , 20 % possibility of crew survival with hibernation systems at low usage mode . Follow up mission " Jacob " resulted in negative track . " " The okudagram gave the years of launch and the year the mission was lost as 2087 and 2088 in an apparent typo . In the episode ' s , the " Charybdis " had a terrestrial launch date of 7 - 23 - 2067 . It was the first manned attempt to travel beyond the confines of the Euclidian star system . The telemetry system failed and the ship was never heard from again .