Vessel prefixes
RRS — Royal Research Ship
The prestige civilian research prefix: a science ship flagged by a particular Earth polity's chartered body rather than by an institute or an owner, the convention surviving as a mark of a nationally-flagged research vessel. Master-commanded. Which body confers it is not established. No ship carrying it has appeared in print yet.
Table
Vessel prefixes
Stands for
Royal Research Ship
Operator
Civilian (national / Earth-state heritage body)
Canon status
Confirmed
About the vessel prefixes
A hull's prefix says who flags it, not what it does — the same class of ship can carry different prefixes depending on which body registered it. The institutional prefixes come first, then the civilian conventions of the later era, then the hulls that answer to nobody.