It might have been the pod where the father/senator or whatnot died, and now that they got the life support and shit fixed, they decided to send the broken pod thing out into space with his body in it like some sort of viking funeral, or they just ditched it because it was just that, broken.

Or its just some other pod that got functional when they used that canister of white liquid, and now they have a exploring-type shuttle they can use.