The Aloha is one of planet Earth’s most cutting-edge, sophisticated spaceships. It is shaped like an antique spaceplane with a rocket engine on top and bottom and features both a chronistan and a prototype Time Override Accelerator (TOA). The name derived from the Hawaiian term for "hello", a reference to the ship's intended function of discovering new planets.
The ship first carried Captain Bud Stanton, Professor Henry Pickens, and Dr. Nera Vivaldi to the third planet from Altair to investigate signals being sent to Earth (which, roughly translated, turned out to mean “we are coming”). Also on board were a Cygnet shuttlecraft for exploring and Bluenose, a sophisticated underwater exploration robot.
The Aloha reached the planet as a veteran of an antimatter storm, an invading alien presence, and a mishap with the TOA. Eventually the crew went home, but returned several times with the ship to learn and explore the planet.