Shuttlecraft are fictional vehicles in the Star Trek science fiction franchise built for short trips in space, such as between a planetary surface and orbit. Also referred to as shuttles, their introduction preceded the development of the Space Shuttle.
Before Star Trek, science fiction productions from Forbidden Planet to Rocky Jones, Space Ranger assumed that a long-range starship would land on planets. Gene Roddenberry's original premise stated that the starship Enterprise rarely lands. Given the special effects complexity of landing a giant starship each week, "rarely" was quickly changed to "never". Dated March 1964, the premise mentions a "small shuttle rocket". The shuttle rocket was too expensive to build for the first episodes. For most of the series the transporter served to teleport characters on and off the ship.
In the first year of Star Trek: The Original Series, the need quickly developed for shuttlecraft. Used to carry personnel, cargo and reconnaissance payloads, shuttles filled the same need as boats on a navy ship. They were also used by starbases. For television writers, they served the dramatic function of putting characters in a small ship that could get lost. Though shuttlecraft were initially expensive to build, they were eventually used in every Star Trek series. Shuttlecraft designs were often shared across different media, for example the Danube-class runabout featured heavily in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, was also featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Star Trek: The Original Series
Art director Matt Jefferies originally envisioned a sleek, streamlined shuttle based upon his background as a pilot. The curved shape proved too expensive to build for the first episodes. 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, 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. A separate set was used for interior scenes as the mockup was too small for filming. This boxlike, utilitarian shape became the prototype of shuttles throughout Star Trek. The shuttlecraft, named for Galileo Galilei, was first featured in "The Galileo Seven". Its registration number is NCC-1701/7 and carries a crew of seven. When Galileo and her crew go missing in the episode a second shuttlecraft called Columbus is launched.
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". In the latter episode, the full-size mockup sported the name Galileo II, acknowledging that the original shuttlecraft was lost during "The Galileo Seven". During "The Omega Glory", the USS Exeter, a starship of the same class as the Enterprise, is said to carry four shuttlecraft.
The Galileo shuttlecraft (a full-size theatrical prop) was not dismantled, but passed through the possession of several owners. The 1966 mockup was sold at auction for $70,150 in summer 2012. The new owner, Adam Schneider, a collector of Trek screen-used items, spent nine months restoring the Galileo in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. It was then donated to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Museum in Houston. The shuttlecraft Galileo was formally unveiled at Space Center Houston on July 31, 2013. 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".
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Freed from the constraints of what could be physically built, Star Trek: The Animated Series introduced audiences to a variety of spacecraft. A larger shuttlecraft, sporting a long nose similar to Star Wars X-wing fighter (years before their first appearance), appeared in "The Slaver Weapon". The episode "Mudd's Passion" featured a different shuttlecraft design. "The Ambergris Element" featured an "aquashuttle", capable of landing on a water-covered planet and submerging. The ambitious scope of this Filmation animated series was a foretaste of what would someday be possible with computer graphics.