The hangar deck is where a battlestar's fighters and support ships, such as Vipers and Raptors, are stored and maintained between missions. It is located under the landing bay of each flight pod.
When a Viper or Raptor returns to the landing bay from a mission, it is moved to one of several elevator platforms, which lowers the spacecraft down to an airlock and the hangar deck below.
Basic repairs, fueling and munition loading take place on the hangar deck. During Condition One alerts, pilots scramble to their fighters. For Viper flight, the deck crew pushes Vipers out into the launch tubes, which are accessible through doors on the hangar deck. Raptors are returned to the landing bay with the landing platforms for their launches; launch tubes are designed for use by Viper-class fighters only. Other special space fighters, such as captured Cylon Raiders, Heavy Raiders, and the experimental Blackbird are stored away on the hangar deck as well.
If a launch is aborted, the deck crew is called upon to pull the fighter out of the tube for quick repair.
Battlestar Galactica
Deck Chief Galen Tyrol is responsible the overall repair and readiness of all combat spacecraft on Galactica.
Currently, only Galactica's port hangar deck is available for flight operations. The starboard hangar deck is largely empty as the whole flight pod was to become a museum on the battlestar's scheduled decommissioning (Miniseries).
Launching spacecraft there is problematic since many of its facilities were stripped for the expected museum. The expanse of the empty starboard hangar deck has been used as a temporary morgue as well as an assembly hall for speeches to the crew at large. After the exodus from New Caprica a refugee camp and a bar are established there.
Notes
- The area usually seen on screen is not the entire hangar deck. It runs nearly the entire length of each flight pod. But because of limited set space only a relatively small part of it can be realized during filming. To balance this, one wall can be turned into a green screen and used for CGI set extensions when necessary. This can be seen in the Miniseries or during Cain's arrival on Galactica in "Pegasus", for example (behind the scenes photo). Wayfinding signs on each dividing wall are also often changed to give the impression that viewers are seeing different, though virtually identical sections of the deck.
- Commander William Adama tells Tyrol to create a temporary morgue for those lost during the initial attack on Galactica in "hangar bay 'B'" (Miniseries, Night 1).
