sysAscendObject does not check if it has been passed a ship object. It will also accept station (and planet) objects - although they cannot be descended afterwards. If the game is saved and then reloaded it will crash with a program not responding message.

Debug.log when saving (not reported as an error in-game):

Unable to save ascended object:
obj class: unknown
obj name: unknown
obj pointer: 14eae1b0
error obtaining crash info

And from the attempted load:

Crash in CGameFile::LoadUniverse
Crash loading game.
george moromisato 26 Oct 2016:

I've fixed this bug, and tested it on a cargo crate, but I suspect other bugs might crop up with ascending a real station (e.g., one with docked ships).