In the year 2122, while transporting an ore refinery from Thedus, the Nostromo, a commercial towing vehicle, was redirected to LV-426, supposedly in response to detecting the distress signal emanating from the planetoid; in reality, Weyland-Yutani had pre-selected the Nostromo to investigate after detecting the signal themselves, placing a Synthetic sleeper agent aboard to ensure the survival of anything that was discovered.