Escape pod In starship classification , an escape pod ( also known as life pod , life boat or evacuation pod ) was a small craft found aboard most starship s that could be used in the event the crew needed to leave the ship . Some 22nd century Klingon starships lacked escape pods . ( ) Noted uses . Escape pods were not limited to space - borne craft . Malcolm Reed once related a story about his great - uncle aboard the 21st century submarine , where it was disabled by a mine , and the crew abandoned ship via escape pods . ( ) When the traveled back in time to the year 2063 , the crew used the ship ' s escape pods to leave the Borg - occupied ship . ( ) During the 2130s , Charles Tucker III used to drive his car out to Chatkin Point and park along the shoreline and stare at the moon with his girl friend . He later compared the size of his first car to that of a Retellian escape pod . ( ) In 2154 , Commander Shran ordered the crew of the " Kumari " to the escape pods , after the vessel was critically damaged by a Romulan drone ship posing as a Tellarite vessel . ( ) In 2155 , the crew of the was forced to use the ship ' s escape pods , after it was trapped in a Tholian web in the mirror universe . " ( ) " In 2256 , the personnel of both the and the evacuated their severely damaged starships in escape pods . ( ) In 2265 , when the " Enterprise " located a disaster recorder near the galactic barrier that was ejected from the 200 years previously , Spock noticed that it wasn ' t even large enough to be a lifeboat . ( ) Escape pods , also known as rescue pods , of the " Odin " were capable of traveling at sublight speed for extended periods . It took them over five months to reach the nearest inhabited planet , Angel I , in 2357 . ( ) Roga Danar used an escape pod from a stolen Angosian police shuttle , in an attempt to elude the . ( ) In 2366 , the Zalkonian known as " John Doe " used a Zalkonian vessel to escape prosecution for his slow transformation to a higher being . When the ship was attacked , " John Doe " used an escape pod to leave the ship before it was destroyed . ( ) Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko used an escape pod during the Battle of Wolf 359 to escape from the doomed . ( ) In the year 2367 , the crew members of the " Arcos " used escape pods when they abandoned the ship above Turkana IV . ( ) In 2368 , when the USS " Enterprise " - D was trapped in a temporal causality loop , Commander William T . Riker ordered all hands to emergency escape pods after the ship was clipped by the . The order ended up being repeated several times with each iteration of the loop , until the two ships escaped . ( ) Ensign Sito Jaxa was reportedly killed in a Federation evacuation pod , when she tried to return to the USS " Enterprise " - D after her mission – to bring back the Cardassian Joret Dal , who previously came aboard the ship in an escape pod – succeeded . ( ) According to a personal calendar file , the Bajoran transport carrying the Bajoran criminal Ibudan had a lifeboat drill on stardate 46383 . This file , along with others , was reviewed by Odo when he was conducting an investigation into the murder of Ibudan . ( ) Following a Dominion attack and being boarded by the Jem ' Hadar , Commander Benjamin Sisko gave the order for the crew to abandon the using escape pods . ( ) Captain Lisa Cusak and Commander Gatsby left the in an escape pod . However , it was torn open on impact and Gatsby was killed . ( ) Several crew members from the used escaped pods to leave the ship when it was being attacked by Cardassian forces . At least three escape pods detached from the " Honshu " before its destruction . An escape pod also landed on a planet . ( ) When the was about to be destroyed by the Dominion in 2375 , Worf left the ship in an escape pod . However , it drifted into the Badlands . The recovered six escape pods from the " Koraga " . Prior to being rescued by Ezri Dax , Worf passed the time in his escape pod by singing the Klingon opera " Gav ' ot toh ' va " . ( ) During a survey of a class T cluster designed to give away mission experience to a number of junior crew members , Crewman Mortimer Harren deliberately took an escape pod from the " Delta Flyer II " in order to lure away dark matter lifeform s that had been pursuing the " Flyer " . ( ) In 2377 , while trying to fend off a attack , Harry Kim came up with an ingenious plan to mask the life signs of the remaining crew in the briefing room , ejecting two escape pods which actually contained photon torpedoes . When the Quarren ship tractor beam ed them in , they were detonated , and the Quarren ships were disabled . ( ) Appendices . Background information . According to the " " they are also referred to as " Autonomous Survival and Recovery Vehicles " or ASRV on Starfleet and Federation spacecraft . It was also stated that the cube - shaped escape pods of the Galaxy - class starship were capable of docking together to form large arrays in order to pool resources . However this was never shown on screen .