system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Alien] If the Company knew about LV-426 and the distress signal before the Nostromo took off on it's mission ( And they did given that Ash was a last minute replacement ) why didn't they just send a normal ship with their own crew to find out about the alien?

It would have solved all their problems in one go.
gpt
It also would have resulted in a flight plan filed with both the ECA and ICC, with all crew and cargo subject to customs and quarantine screenings. 

The *Nostromo* was just as much a "normal ship" owned by W-Y as any research or other vessel they might have sent, was already scheduled to be on a route that would allow for convenient re-routing to the signal source (don't discount how expensive it is to send a ship somewhere... space is *really* big, and nothing even remotely like crowded, traffic-wise), and provided for a very easy way of getting crap past customs and quarantine in the event that a viable xenological agent was discovered. 

Plus, truckers are easy to buy off.