navigation Branch

The Navigation Branch is responsible for maneuvering the vessel, ensuring it reaches an intended desination and for accurately establishing the vessel's position in space at any given time.

Navigation officers operate and maintain the vessel's navigational systems, which are dedicated astronomical sensor systems that use the position of fixed astronomical points (such as stars) in relation to the vessel to establish it's position in space. Charts which identify such fixed astronomical points ("star charts") are maintained by the navigation branch, including the addition of new stars as they fall into navigationally significant range.