14.1 Shuttlecraft Operations

The USS Enterprise is equipped with auxiliary shuttlecraft to support mission objectives.

Standard complement of shuttlecraft includes ten standard personnel shuttles, ten cargo shuttles, and five special-purpose craft. Additional special-purpose shuttles can be provided to a starship as necessary. The Enterprise also carries twelve two-person shuttlepods for extravehicular and short-range use.

Operating rules require that at least eleven shuttle vehicles be maintained at operational status at all times. Cruise Mode operating rules require one standard shuttlecraft and one shuttlepod to be at urgent standby at all times, available for launch at five minutes' notice. Four additional shuttlecraft are always available on immediate standby (thirty minutes to launch), and an additional six vehicles are maintained for launch with twelve hours' notice. Red Alert Mode operating rules require two additional shuttles to be brought to urgent standby, and all nine remaining operational vehicles to be maintained at immediate standby.

We did not have a shuttlecraft for much of our first season. The reason is that the expense of building all of the standing Enterprise sets was so high that the studio wanted to defer the expense of the shuttle until the second season. What the studio didn't count on is that writer Sandy Fries wanted to show some parts of the ship that hadn't been shown yet. Upon discovering that we had not yet seen a shuttlecraft, Sandy was quick to write it into his first season script "Coming of Age." Ironically, this was somewhat similar to the situation that existed during the early days of the original Star Trek series when they, too, could not yet afford a shuttlecraft mockup. (This also explains why our heroes did not send a shuttle down to the planet to rescue Sulu and company in the original series' early first season episode "The Enemy Within.")