The wreck of the Nova 5 was discovered in the Series II episode "Kryten", and is in fact the first spacecraft seen in the show apart from Red Dwarf itself.The spaceship originally had 3 female officers and and an unspecified number of male officers but it crashed into an asteroid an unspecified amount of time previous to the episode, and the male officers were killed on impact, and the 3 surviving women died an unknown time later. The hyperactive series 4000 service mechanoid Kryten was still attending to his long-dead masters (now skeletons) when encountered by the members of Red Dwarf.
Kryten, programmed to serve and nothing more, refuses to believe they are dead and continues to prepare meals for the skeletal remains and dress them for centuries, perhaps millennia, after their deaths. Ironically, and hilariously, the crew of the Red Dwarf heed Kryten's distress call with much excitement and enthusiasm when faced with the prospect of meeting real live women for the first time in three million years.
Nova 5 is never seen after that episode, but is mentioned several times afterwards and recalled by Kryten with much fondness.
In the Series VII episode "Ouroboros", it was revealed that Kryten was responsible for the accident that killed the ship's crew. A reason has not been given in the series, but the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers explains that the crash was caused by Kryten cleaning the sensitive computer terminals with soapy water.
In the novel, Nova 5 is an American vessel owned by The Coca-Cola Company which was sent on a mission to induce the supernova of 128 supergiant stars in order to create a five-week-long message in the sky visible even in daylight, reading "COKE ADDS LIFE!" After the Red Dwarf crew finds the wreck it is brought aboard and repaired in order to utilise its Duality Jump engine, which could get the crew back to Earth within three months. However, although the ship is successfully repaired, circumstances prevent them from ever going through with it.
