Launch bay

The Aeon's launch bay

An NX class launch bay

A Defiant-class launch bay

A launch bay is a location from which vehicles, be they spaceborne or otherwise, are dispatched.

On a starship, a launch bay was the area from which shuttlecraft and other small craft may be launched, and where they are docked when not in use. The term was in common use in the 22nd century as by the 23rd century, the term shuttlebay was more common.

Sometime before late 1996, Henry Starling had constructed a launch bay within the uppermost floors of Chronowerx Industries headquarters. This launch bay housed the Federation timeship Aeon, which Starling had appropriated in the year 1967. (VOY: "Future's End", "Future's End, Part II")

In the Template:ShipClass of starship, the launch bay opened from the ventral hull and was capable of holding two shuttlepods. These shuttlepods both entered and exited through two sliding doors, which were controlled from a control station on the upper gantry level; the launch bay was not capable of maintaining atmospheric pressure during launch, requiring repressurization after every launch. The launch bay is equipped with a telescoping arm to guide craft through these bay doors. The grappler is also housed on the ceiling of this bay. (ENT: "Cold Front", "Divergence")

Due to their compact size, the Template:ShipClass also utilized a launch bay, instead of the larger shuttlebays used on other Starfleet ships of the late 24th century. The USS Defiant's launch bay was used by Type 18 shuttlepods and Type-10 shuttlepod, such as the Chaffee. (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")

Although the Defiant was never explicitly referred to as having a launch bay, it shares similarities with the launch bays of the NX-class. The script of "Call to Arms" states that the room where Chief O'Brien was working on the mines was the Defiant's launch bay.

Dominion Headquarters on Cardassia Prime had at least three launch bays. A Cardassian patrol ship was sitting on launch bay 3-A in 2375. Damar told Worf and Ezri Dax of the launch bay's location, so they could escape execution by the Dominion. (DS9: "Strange Bedfellows")

Background

• Though a full scale launch bay set had been built for Enterprise, the launching sequences of the shuttlepods had to be executed in CGI. The CGI version of the launch bay of the NX-01 was built at Foundation Imaging by Koji Kuramura who remembered, "Here a fun little factoid. The building of the CG Set of Enterprise’s Launch bay was never in the budget. I just thought it should be built, because I knew it would get used. Dougy helped me out by getting me a bunch of photographs and a tour of the set, so that I could build it for the Series premiere episode. Also, building the Shuttle Pod was quite tough to. Because it had to match the practical set ship precisely. The only thing is that, they would not let us, put characters in the cockpit, it always had to be blacked out. Which I thought made it look a little unreal. One more factoid. The shuttle pod also had guns, but you only saw them used in one episode… Does anyone know the name of that Episode? Okay one more thing, that image really doesn’t show how much detail is in that CG Set. Because I built everything. From Ceiling to Floor, almost every nut and bolt. Went a little crazy."[1]
• Likewise, Kuramura built a CGI version of the Defiant launch bay, for DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice", only partially seen in a fleeting moment. I built the Defiant’s shuttlebay. The whole Set was Built. But Foundation didn’t work on many DS9 Episodes, because Gary Hutzel liked to do a lot of the shots himself. So basically I built it, because Doug had provided me with detailed drawings of the whole set. The only thing was, I could not quite figure out where to put the hanger doors. I had to do it so it didn’t change the exterior of the Defiant model. Other than that it was a fun model to build."[2]
  When Drexler was asked by Gary Hutzel to design a larger shuttlepod, what eventually was to become the Chaffee type shuttlepod for the Defiant, he recalled, "And that’s pretty much how it always happens, except that I had just completed the diagrams of the Defiant for the DS9 Tech Manual. Gary! I blurted like a little kid who didn’t wanna. Where? Where is it supposed to launch from! It’s impossible! There is no place! And to prove it I unfurled the newly minted diagrams on top of the lightbox. See? I’ve worked out every nook! There is absolutely no place… no place… um… hey… it could go right here! I point to the circular ring on the bottom of the ship. Right here! Some modest adjusting and… it… could… work! There was another flash of light and a roiling of thunder and he was gone! His disembodied voice reverberated over me… Today…today… today…"[3] Yet, Drexler was able to produce a concept sketch rendered in Adobe that was sent to Kuramura.[4]
  The renewed shuttlebay was justified by Drexler in the Manual as "The shuttlecraft bay has been built into Decks 3 and 4, immediately below the "Defiant" bridge, in a reserved volume originally designed for future computer and weapons systems."(Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, page 138)