On the planet Lobos Centauri III, the Federation freighter Amazon hit a mine. Her orbit started to decay. The captain ordered a distress signal to be sent. Then he ordered the lifepods to be launched. The XO told the captain that the Amazon only had lifepods for half the crew and that the other half were to be installed when the ship returned. So half of the crew went into the lifepods and the other half went BOOM when the Amazon exploded. An inquiry was held about this and the Federation ruled that no starship should leave Spacedock without all of her escape pods. No exceptions!