During the Tzenkethi War, William Ross was assigned to the Leonov as second officer. During one battle against two Tzenkethi vessels the Leonov's warp core was breached, and the crew barely had time to make it to escape pods. The Tzenkethi killed half of the surviving crew by shooting down their pods. Those who survived found refuge on an class L planet. (SCE eBook: The Future Begins; ST reference: Ships of the Line) Likely named after Aleksei Leonov, the first man to walk in space.