Explorer class ship

Explorer class ship
Status	Active (as of 2267)
Affiliation	Earth Alliance
Class	Explorer
Crew	350
Engines	Beigle-Bryant 9000A Particle Thrust Engine
Jump Capable	Yes
Gravity	Rotational sections only
Weapons	4 52mm plasma pulse cannons 4 twin particle cannons

Explorer class ships are used by Earthforce to explore new regions of space and build new jumpgates.

Overview

These immense ships are built by Mitchell-Hyundyne at the New Kobe Orbital Shipyard. Designed for the long haul, this is a pure breed exploration vessel for charting out on the Rim, making first contact with new species and constructing new jumpgates to open up exploitation of areas with useful resources. Explorers are the largest ships in service of the Earth Alliance. As such, vessels of this class were not built for combat and were unlikely to be called upon for fleet action support.

In addition to their complement of fighters, Explorer-class ships have an array of smaller support vessels and shuttles for short range exploration and planetary surveying. Understandably, Earth Alliance has very few of these ships due to their large cost in credits and equipment, but the few they do have allow for rapid expansion in Earth's sphere of influence through jumpgate construction and are a good source of income, as other races can then be charged for the use of new jumpgates.

Despite their relatively low crew, explorer ships are exceptionally massive vessels. At over six kilometers in length, an explorer ship is nearly as long as Babylon 4 (the only Babylon station designed to travel under its own power).

Captain John Sheridan remarked that if an Earthforce officer was "supremely lucky", he or she would see two Explorer class ships in his or her lifetime - in order to justify their expense, they are always on the Rim constructing gates. They are only seen in civilized space if they are undergoing major overhauls, and in fact crew starting or finishing their tours are transported to or from the Explorer by other ships instead of the Explorer visiting a port of call to pick them up.

Known Vessels

• EAS Cortez: Commanded by Captain Jack Maynard.
• EAS De Soto: Transported the IPX survey vessel Icarus part of the way on its voyage to Alpha Omega III in 2256.
• EAS Eratosthenes: Mentioned as one of the first ships to be attacked by the Shadows.
• Unnamed Explorer: Commanded by Captain Matthew Gideon prior to his taking command of the Excalibur.

Appearances

• "A Distant Star"
• "Rising Star"
• "In the Beginning"
• "War Zone"
• "The Shadow Within"

References

Other sources

• The Official Guide to Babylon 5 (CD ROM)