Galactica Museum

Overview

Panoramic shot of the Museum, showcasing many of the exhibits.

The Battlestar Galactica Museum is a military history museum of the First Cylon War, constructed in the starboard flight pod of the retired battlestar Galactica. The museum serves as an educational center and as a memorial to those who served during the War.

The main part of the museum is featured on the former landing deck, which has been pressurized with massive canopies installed over the pod's entryways. The hangar deck and launch tubes below have been converted into a gift shop and recreational area. A ceremonial flyby of Galactica's last remaining active Viper squadron and the decommissioning ceremony are held here just prior to the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies.

Exhibits

The main exhibits of the museum featured many significant wartime artifacts. Those include:
A Mark I Viper
An older class battlestar
A landram
A transport shuttle
A squadron of Mark II Vipers (40x)
A Cylon Raider
An older class Cylon basestar
A replica Cylon Centurion.

After the Fall

Model of a Cylon War-era basestar and the shell of a Centurion on display in the defunct museum.

During the Cylon attack on the Colonies, the Galactica deck crew hurriedly restores some of the exhibits to working condition upon receiving the news. The first priority is the Viper Mark II squadron, which becomes the battlestar's only defense after dumping the last of its munitions upon decommissioning and losing its last active Viper squadron in battle (TRS: Miniseries). After fleeing the Colonies, many of the museum pieces find full-time use throughout the fleet of surviving ships. The Vipers continue to defend the fleet, the landram is used for mining operations aboard Majahual, and flight deck operations aboard Galactica (TRS: "Scar", "Escape Velocity"). However, the museum itself is never converted back to use as an operational flight pod, despite Galactica's increased load of Vipers inherited from the battlestar Pegasus. On one occasion it temporarily serves as a quarantine zone when a number of Galactica's marines and pilots come into contact with Cylons carrying lymphocytic encephalitis (TRS: "A Measure of Salvation").

The museum is heavily damaged, repaired, and ultimately destroyed over the course of four years. The first hit comes less than two months after the fall of the Colonies, when an out of control Heavy Raider crashes into the pod, depressurizing it. A handful of Centurions survive the crash and board Galactica, marching over museum pieces as they force their way into the ship and attack the crew (TRS: "Scattered"). Damage from the crash is repaired sometime later. Four years after fleeing the Colonies, the final blow to the museum and the flight pod containing it comes after a handful of Raptors utilize their FTL drives inside the pod as they jump to the Cylon Colony. The distortions caused by the jumping ships blow a hole in the forward section of the pod, obliterating it. The surviving museum artifacts, if any, are flown into a nearby star with the rest of the fleet following the battle (TRS: "Daybreak, Part II").