Tour - Shuttlebay

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Summary

The shuttlebay (variously called the flight deck, hangar deck, shuttlecraft bay, shuttlecraft deck, or landing bay) was a facility on a starship where shuttlecraft were launched, received, stored, and maintained. The shuttlebay was externally accessed via the hangar doors and internally by the pressure doors.

Additional Information

Location		Deck 4
Description		The use of shuttlebays during the 22nd century and 23rd century involved depressurization of these shipboard facilities, during which time the space doors would be opened to permit ingress and egress of spacecraft. In some situations during the 23rd and 24th centuries, development of force-field technology allowed shuttlebay space doors to usually be kept closed, and when these were opened during shuttlebay operations, the physical doors were replaced with a force field where shuttlecraft or other space vehicles were about to board or were about to be launched. These force-fields could be penetrated by the shuttlecraft itself, while nonetheless preventing decompression through exposure to the vacuum of space of the shuttlebay. Most shuttlebays were equipped with a tractor beam emitter in order to facilitate the landing procedure.