SS Birdseye was a space module constructed during the late 20th century, that was designed to carry deceased, but cryonically preserved Humans into Earth's orbit.
Sometime after its launch, this module was carried from Earth's orbit into interstellar space, and by 2364 it was on a course to the Kazis binary system, where it would eventually be destroyed. Most of the cryonic crypts on the module had been damaged, so only three of the passengers were viable when the USS Enterprise-D discovered it in 2364: Clare Raymond, Sonny Clemonds, and Ralph Offenhouse. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone")
Passengers
Background
The space module was identified only as "an ancient capsule" or "space module" in the episode. Both the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 170) and the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion mention that the name S.S. Birdseye was inscribed on the hull. The name “Birdseye” was a humorous reference to Birds Eye Frozen Foods and its founder, Clarence Birdseye, who invented the process of flash freezing food.[1]
The topmost segment of the satellite was labeled with the registry or identification number 4077, one of the many references to M*A*S*H.
In an extended scene in the script of the episode, Worf states that, there was no way a satellite like this could have broken orbit and traveled the distance it had on its own power, even in thousands of years. They discover that the empty crypts had been forced opened and the occupants taken. To Data this suggested that, who ever took the satellite away from Earth's orbit probably learned all they could learn from those corpses and left the others behind. [2]
For more information on this studio model, see TNG studio models.