The Cardassian escape pod was a small Cardassian spacecraft used to evacuate a ship during an emergency. This type of escape pod measured five meters in length. In 2370, Joret Dal, a Federation operative inside the Cardassian military, was heading towards Federation space when he was forced to abandon his ship in an escape pod. He was 50,000 kilometers from the Cardassian border. Later, the USS Enterprise-D, from within the Argaya system, detected the pod and beamed Dal aboard. (TNG: "Lower Decks" )