Asoka

The Asoka is a research vessel built by the Tau'ri which came into service by the year 2009. It is the first ship to be crewed by India.

History
Originally scheduled to be launched in 2010, its launch date was moved it up to summer 2009. Richard P. Woolsey former Atlantis expedition leader now United States representative for the IOA was informed by Lt. Colonel Davis that the Asoka would be sending out their support personnel and material beforehand provided by the Indian Air Force.

The IAF wished that their people to be acclimated to spaceflight, as only four of their people have been off-world before, all which are civilian scientists. Many of the crew that would be assigned to the Asoka would then be riding along on Daedalus and seeing it operationally. Woolsey was impressed by the ventures, seeing it as the first major cooperative operation that the IOA invested.

According to Woolsey, the Asoka’s crew would be about a quarter of the total population of Atlantis. Unlike the Daedalus and Hammond, which alternated between the Pagasus and Milky Way or the it would be based in Atlantis and its mission was to explore the Pegasus galaxy.