The designers of Terok Nor provided for limited emergency operations and personnel escape from the station in the event of a catastrophic failure of onboard systems, external attack, or cosmic threat. Since the first arrival of the first Starfleet engineering crews to secure the station, all serviceable Cardassian equipment has been run through rigorous checkout procedures. Allocations of Starfleet equipment have been added to increase the survival chances of station crew and residents. The Starfleet equipment includes 35 standard lifeboats in the form of ASRVs, 55 EPGs and 38 SEWGs.

     The equipment abandoned in place by the Cardassians includes lifeboats and temporary-use survival suits. The latter determined to be at least 30 years old and in unusable condition. Only 27 lifeboats were deployed at Terok Nor.

     Starfleet analysts have confirmed that while Terok Nor was in orbit about Bajor, the lifeboats were capable of sustaining Cardassians for barely 18 minutes while the craft performed a powered descent to the planet’s surface.

     Since the handover, Bajoran and Starfleet authorities have recorded the disposition of the 27 Cardassian lifeboats:

5- Tested to destruction by Starfleet R&D and Bajoran defense forces

2- Disassembled, analyzes, and stored at an undisclosed Starfleet location

8- Upgraded and transferred to Bajor orbital facilities