Derelict (Alien)

The Derelict was the name given to the long-wrecked spacecraft discovered by the crew of the Nostromo on the planet LV-426 whilst responding to an SOS signal in the 1979 science fiction film, Alien. The Derelict was an alien ship; however it is extremely unlikely/impossible that it was created by the species of the titular alien (Xenomorph). Rather, this ship was used and most likely constructed by beings of a different species, the Space Jockeys, who then fell prey to the Xenomorph.

Ship Specifications
The Derelict was a large, wishbone-shaped craft with three large openings leading to what is assumed to be the cockpit. It is from one of these openings that three of the Nostromo crew members (Captain Dallas, Navigator Lambert, and Executive Officer Kane) entered the ship. The interior of the Derelict seemed to resemble more a giant beast than a spacegoing vessel, with its skeletal walls, circular gangways and steep passages.

The Derelict may be a type of biotechnology from an advanced and ancient race (the Space Jockeys). It is organic in appearance, and it shows signs of being partially fossilized. The dead Pilot is also fused to the command chair on the ship's bridge equivalent, this is probably a type of neural interface. The Derelict is probably a type of cargo ship, as evidenced by the enormous egg chambers; though it is still functional, since the cryogenic gases are still present.

One interesting aspect of the ship is that we are never told exactly what part of the ship is seen by the crew of Nostromo. It would seem to be the bow, or front, because the Space Jockey is apparently the pilot but this is uncertain. The exterior of the ship looks almost like the stern (back-end) of a ship that has hit the ground and buried its nose in the dirt. Whatever the case, it is also uncertain if the egg-chamber is inside the ship or is in a cave under the ship. Whichever theory one chooses to accept will also dictate which backstory the viewer will accept.

Crew
In an enormous cockpit room, on a turntable-like structure was a giant alien life form that appeared to have been dead for a long time, since it was fossilized. It appeared to have grown out of its equally enormous chair. It was sitting at a giant telescopic object that pointed upward that is assumed to be the pilot's controls. It also had a huge hole in its chest with bones bent outward, as if something exploded from the inside.

Very little is known about this long dead organism inside the Derelict, which the Alien production team named Space Jockey. H.R. Giger, designer of the Derelict and the Space Jockey, originally named it simply "The Pilot". Lambert of the Nostromo brought up the question of what happened to the rest of the crew on the Derelict, since no remains of any other Space Jockeys were found on board.

Cargo
Kane, the executive officer, found a large hole near the side of the Space Jockey's "turntable". The hole opened out into a pit, apparently burned through by acid. The crewman volunteered to go down and investigate.

Upon reaching the bottom he discovered that he was inside an enormous cave-like cargo hold filled with thousands of leathery eggs, covered by a thin layer of blue mist that reacted when broken. It was hotter than the tropics inside. This room was called "the egg chamber" for obvious reasons, and is the scene of the first contact with the Alien organism, when the facehugger bursts out from one of the eggs, penetrates Kane's helmet, and attaches itself to his face.

Origins
The Derelict and its inhabitant, the Space Jockey, remain a total mystery and virtually nothing is ever said about either throughout the entire Alien series. If there were a prequel added to the Alien series, the backstory of the Derelict and its crew might be a key and revelatory theme, and those responsible for the series have expressed their interest in seeing this. The Derelict was never seen again after Alien except for its brief appearance in the 1991 Special Edition of Aliens which depicted its discovery by the Jorden family, on the now colonized LV-426, and it is following this reintroduction that the colony is decimated by the species. It was generally assumed after Alien: Resurrection was released that the Derelict was destroyed in the thermonuclear meltdown and subsequent explosion of the atmosphere processor( in the novelisation of Aliens LV-426 has many atmosphere processor's covering the planet) in Aliens. This has since been proven untrue by Aliens Vs Predator as the Player (while playing as a Marine) has to go to the Derelict to escape in one of the first levels of the game. Although canonically it hasn't been said if the Derelict appears to have been destroyed, at least in non-canon terms, it still exists.