The Rittenhouse Incident was an engineering accident that occurred on board the USS Rittenhouse in 2291. The warp core of the Rittenhouse began to breach due to unknown causes. Commander Robert Lupia was able to shut down the core before a full breach occurred, but not before seven of the crew in the engineering compartment, including the Captain, were killed.
Lupia was brought up on charges of reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty and disobeying orders immediately by Commodore Richard Voss, who happened to be on board at the time, and who gave Lupia the order to jettison the core. It was found that a fault in the engineering computers were to blame for the incident, and not Lupia. However, Voss was able to convict Lupia on the count of disobeying a direct order and handed out a severe punishment. Lupia was reduced in rank to Lieutenant and prevented from serving on board a starship for an undetermined period of time.