Shuttlecraft (Star Trek)
Art director Matt Jefferies originally envisioned a sleek, streamlined shuttle based upon his background as a pilot.
[3] AMT offered to build a full-sized shuttlecraft at no cost in exchange for rights to market a model kit.
The final design of the mockup, by Gene Winfield,[4] is 24 feet (7.2 m) long and weighs one ton, has a plywood hull, and was built in two months by a team of 12 people.
Once the shuttlecraft had been established, footage of them appeared in episodes including "The Menagerie", "The Doomsday Machine", "Journey to Babel", "Metamorphosis", "The Immunity Syndrome", and "The Way to Eden".
The new owner, Adam Schneider, a collector of Trek screen-used items, spent nine months restoring the Galileo in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.
[6] In 2014, the prop was used again in a film production and appeared in a scene of the fan-made Star Trek Continues episode "Fairest of Them All".
[7] Freed from the constraints of what could be physically built, Star Trek: The Animated Series introduced audiences to a variety of spacecraft.
With its large budget, Star Trek: The Motion Picture showed a variety of shuttle-type vehicles operating near Earth.
Spock docks with Enterprise in a shuttle named for the Vulcan philosopher Surak, which carries Warp drive nacelles on a detachable sled.
At the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, passenger shuttles appear both in spacedock and to rescue the crew from San Francisco Bay.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier featured many scenes with updated shuttlecrafts, also sporting the name Galileo as well as Copernicus.
The design was similar in size and shape to the original series shuttle, with updated engine nacelles and a large rear hatch.
Star Trek Nemesis introduced Argo, a shuttle designed to carry a land vehicle in a rear compartment.
[12] The set was designed by Richard James, and was funded from The Next Generation's budget, in order to take pressure off DS9's finances.
The new Defiant shuttlecraft was introduced towards the end of Season 6, in "The Sound of Her Voice" (June 10, 1998 / S6E25) This episode "Change of Heart" includes a sequence that depicts a runabout shuttle traversing an asteroid field, then landing on a planet.
[17] This was the first episode in which runabout sequences were done completely with computer-generated imagery: complex scenes where the ship weaved through the dense asteroid field were achieved without weeks of miniature effect work, and camera movements during the landing sequence allowed the runabout to be shown from multiple angles in the same scene, as there was no need to conceal a 'mounting point' for the miniature.
[18] Equipped with warp drive and technological enhancements gleaned from the Borg, the Delta Flyer was far more capable than the standard shuttles it replaced.
[18] The design of the fictional spacecraft by the production staff and how it was presented in special effects has been written about in books about the franchise.
[19] The Delta Flyer was designed by illustrator Rich Sternbach, and exterior views were rendered by computer graphics by Foundation Imaging.
[21] One of Voyager's shuttles, the Aeroshuttle, was integrated with the hull in the saucer section and although it was never used in an episode, the production team did develop special effects test footage of it disembarking.
[22] Voyager's Aeroshuttle was intended as a warp-capable vessel that could also fly in atmospheres; the footage was made by CGI team leaders Rob Bonchune and Adam Lebowitz, along with the VFX Producer Dan Curry.
[24][25] The shuttlecraft plays into a plot element, as its air supply is running out, which creates an atmosphere of tension and desperation as the characters try to find a solution.
[citation needed] Wernher von Braun in the 1950s conceived of a reusable winged spacecraft as a ferry rocket.
Aerospace Engineer Maxwell Hunter and others had been using the term "shuttlecraft" for several years, corresponding to the broadcast dates of Star Trek.
On January 5, 1972, President Richard Nixon formally announced development of the Space Shuttle, making the name permanent.
Like the shuttlecraft of Star Trek: The Original Series, the Space Shuttle orbiters were used interchangeably to carry crew, cargo or exploration payloads.
