The spaceship sent to investigate Rama in Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama is Endeavour. It is dispatched because it is the only human vessel close enough to intercept the enormous alien object as it enters the Solar System.
The novel is set mainly in the 2130s, after Spaceguard detects Rama, initially catalogued as an asteroid. Once telescopic observations reveal its unnaturally smooth, cylindrical shape, scientists conclude that it is an artificial starship. Commander Bill Norton leads Endeavour’s expedition inside it.
Rama’s interior contains a vast cylindrical landscape, a frozen body of water called the Cylindrical Sea, strange structures, and mysterious biological-mechanical creatures known as biots. The crew can study the vessel, but they never discover who built it or its ultimate purpose.
Readers often confuse Endeavour with famous fictional ships such as Enterprise or Discovery. Those belong to other science-fiction traditions; Clarke’s investigating vessel is Endeavour, named after the historic exploration ship associated with James Cook.