Jack of Harts

The New England Federation built and maintained the NASA rockets that pressed the frontier of explored space further outward until NASA itself ceased to exist. The Federation Starfleet took over most of NASA’s old mission after that, and became the standard all other exploration programs are measured against. Federation exploration cruisers are the best equipped and prepared exploration ships in known space. Their missile launchers can send out all manners of probes and their laser arrays can test any material to find out what they are looking at. They were never built with heavy gravitic weapons since they were not warships, but their shields and armor are the very best, and their lasers and missiles are perfectly capable of defending them from those with less noble goals. Do not underestimate them.