The Lerow rocket was a rocket-powered spacecraft in service to the Lerow space service on the Lerow homeworld.
Specifics[]
This class of rocket took off and landed vertically, was chemically propelled, and was capable of an interplanetary journey without needing to refuel. It had one primary engine and four stabilizing engines. Armaments included a laser or phaser cannon. It also contained equipment capable of absorbing life energy on a large scale from plant and animal lifeforms. Personnel included at least six people, including a commander and weapons officer.
Service history[]
In 2266, a Lerow rocket was readied for liftoff amid heavy acid rains that were killing plant life all over the planet. Its crew were tasked with finding a solution. They landed on Ecnal and proceeded to drain life energy from that world to restore their own. Their operations were exposed by James T. Kirk, Spock and Janice Rand, who had been visiting Ecnal from the USS Enterprise.
Kirk and Spock devised a solution: they brought a large prism-shaped energy converter to the rocket's landing site. Suspecting that the device was a weapon, the commander ordered his weapons officer to fire the ship's cannon at it. It fired, but the weapon's blast was reflected back as life energy, fully charging the rocket's power cells. In gratitude, the commander offered a handshake to Kirk, then gave the Ecnalian leader and members of the landing party each a potted flowering plant from his planet's gardens. The vessel blasted off to return home. (TOS comic: "Planet Ecnal's Dilemma")