USCSS Nostromo (Earth-9471)

"This is commercial towing vehicle Nostromo out of the Solomons, registration number one-eight-oh-niner-two-four-six-zero-nine."

- Ellen Ripley

The USCSS Nostromo (hull classification symbol: 180924609) was a modified Lockmart CM-88B Bison freighter of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, captained by Arthur Dallas. The Nostromo was a commercial ship that operated as a tug, transporting goods from the outer colonies to the inner colonies.

Early construction
The Nostromo was constructed in 2487, on Draco III, meant to serve as an interstellar cruiser, but was later refitted and modified in 2494 to serve as a commercial ship and commercial hauler, transporting goods and resources between the Inner and outer colonies. Because of the alterations, the original Saturn J-3000 deuterium fusion drives were removed and replaced with Rolls-Royce N66 Cyclone fusion drives and a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. The ship also featured seven cryosleep chambers to accommodate the crew during slipspace travels, as well as background systems, all which were handled by the Nostromo's shipboard artificial intelligence Red Queen.

Final voyage and destruction
"Final report of the Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew — Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain Dallas — are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ellen Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off."

- Ellen Ripley When Weyland-Yutani detected, and partially decoded, an unidentified signal from LV-426 in 2523, the Nostromo, unknown to its crew, was chosen to investigate it and recover a living xenomorph specimen from the satellite. In order to recover the lifeform, the science officer of the Nostromo was replaced with Ash, a synthetic sleeper agent, two days before the ship left the colony Thedus. Under Special Order 937, Ash was to retrieve the xenomorph through all means necessary, even if it meant the lives of his fellow crew members. After the ship left Thedeus, Captain Arthur Dallas transmitted the ship's report packet to the Sol system through Sevastopol Station.

In 2525, after the Red Queen received a mysterious message hailing from LV-426 through the Zeta Reticuli system, the Nostromo's crew landed the ship on the moon in order to investigate it. When the Nostromo landed on Acheron, its Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine became damaged by the dust that the ship generated when entering the atmosphere. Dallas then promptly ordered engineers Dennis Parker and Samuel Brett to manually fix the engine, while he, Thomas Kane, and Joan Lambert went to check the source of the signal. Engineers weren't fully able to repair the drive when Lambert and Dallas returned with Kane, who had been left comatose and with a Facehugger attached to his face, and the captain ordered the ship to leave the moon.

During its route back to Earth, the Alien that birthed from Kane started to stalk and systematically slaughter each member of the crew, partly because of the covert aid provided by Ash, who sought to capture the creature and send it to Weyland-Yutani so it could be used as a bioweapon. The three remaining survivors: Ellen Ripley, Lambert, and Parker, decided to self-destruct the ship and escape aboard the shuttle Narcissus to kill the Alien. Ultimately, Ripley became the only survivor of the crew, alongside the ship's cat, Jonesy, as the Nostromo was destroyed when its reactors overloaded.

Legacy
"I remember reading about your ship, actually, when I was a teen. It's gone down in the 'lost with all hands' files."

- Dr. Jonathan Clemens to Ellen Ripley After the Nostromo's destruction and the death of nearly its entire crew, the incidents surrounding the xenomorph and the Derelict were covered up by the Office of Naval Intelligence Section 3, with its operatives destroying any archive and record related to the operation, including the nature of the Acheron's beacon. The beacon was later located and deactivated by the crew of the salvaging ship Anesidora. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation lost large amounts of money with the disappearance of the ship, classifying the ship as "lost with all hands". As such, many spook stories and conspiracy theories arose regarding the whereabouts of the vessel.

Crew members

 * Arthur Dallas † - Captain
 * Thomas Kane † - Executive Officer
 * Ellen Ripley - Warrant Officer
 * Ash (Synthetic) † - Science Officer
 * Joan Lambert † - Navigation Officer
 * Dennis Parker † - Chief Engineer
 * Samuel Brett † - Engineering Technician
 * Jonesy - Ship's cat

Trivia

 * The ship is named after the eponymous hero from the 1904 novel Nostromo by Joseph Conrad.