The Fortuna was a vessel captained by Grant Kelly, the biological father of Judy Robinson. It appears on Netflix's Lost in Space.
History[]
It was believed to have been lost for good along with Judy's father, Grant Kelly. When a group of 97 children from the 24th Mission of the Resolute were sent away on a Jupiter spacecraft with Judy as their captain, they believed that the Robot was using the advanced alien propulsion drive to take them to the colony of Alpha Centauri. Instead, they arrived at the wreck of the Fortuna, nestled within the remains of a shattered planet. ("Ninety-Seven")
Boarding the ship, Judy discovers one dead crew member -- Faith Carson, Payload specialist -- who was still in her EVA suit. The Fortuna Lander missing containing the rest of the crew in their cryotubes. ("Three Little Birds") Judy eventually manages to track down the lander and revive Grant, but his pod's wakeup systems malfunction, nearly killing him before Judy saves her father with a makeshift defibrillator. As a result, Judy and Grant decide to take the crew back in their cryo tubes and awaken them on Alpha Centauri where doctors can be present in case something goes wrong. ("Contact") Grant reveals that the ship's true mission was not to explore Alpha Centauri but rather to explore what was on the other side of a rift in space, one that they were unaware of at the time was created by the alien engines. Grant himself states that the Fortuna was "once the greatest ship ever built" and he laments that it never got to complete its mission.
When the kids prepare to leave for Alpha Centauri, they learn from SAR that their parents are in trouble. Using their Jupiter as a diversion, the kids fly to their parents' rescue in the Fortuna. The other Jupiters are able to make it through a rift to Alpha Centauri, but the Robinsons are forced to divert their Jupiter and the Fortuna to the boggy planet in order to keep SAR from following them to the colony. When the kids are reunited with their parents, the cryotubes containing the Fortuna's crew are transferred over to the other Jupiters. The Jupiters successfully make it to Alpha Centauri where the crew is presumably revived under more controlled conditions. ("Nothing Left Behind") The Fortuna crashes into the planet's surface and is destroyed in the crash. John and Penny Robinson rescue Robot from the wreckage and recover the ship's data banks after Penny notices a strange recording. ("Stuck")
Examining the data banks, John discovers that they have been wiped of everything but the security camera footage. From a recording, the Robinsons learn that on December 21, 2044, just a few days before the crash of the Christmas Star on Earth, an unidentified Robot, possibly Scarecrow, found the Fortuna and scanned Grant while he was in cryosleep. From this scan, the Robots learned the location of Earth, leading to them sending the Christmas Star there. As a result, the true first contact between humans and alien intelligence wasn't with Scarecrow on Earth, it was with Grant on the Fortuna. "The Fortuna was their Christmas Star," concludes Maureen. ("Final Transmission")
While trying to figure out the defense system on Alpha Centauri, Grant reveals the true nature of the Fortuna's mission to Maureen: a small group of scientists discovered a rift in space opening and closing like the ones generated by the alien engines. However, back then, no one knew what it really was and since the unknown tends to be scary to civilians, NASA came up with the cover story that the Fortuna was sent to explore Alpha Centauri when in reality, it was sent to explore what was on the other side of the rift. More specifically, the crew was sent to find out where the rift went to, what was causing it, or who was causing it. As a result, the flight data was scrubbed from their hard drives as no one could know the truth, not even Mission Control. In order to protect their communications, they were always protected by a VBAS system like the defense shield on Alpha Centauri. ("Contingencies on Contingencies")
Crew[]
- Grant Kelly, Captain
- Faith Carson, Payload Specialist
- Shen Bo
- Juliette Williams
- 1 unnamed crew member
Gallery[]
