Launch bay

This article discusses the fighter launch platforms of the Original Series battlestars. For information about similar facilities on Re-imagined Series battlestars, see launch tubes (RDM), landing bay and flight pod.

Maintenance crew complete their in the launch bay before Vipers launch (Saga of a Star World).

The launch bay is a place from where a Colonial battlestar launches its Vipers and other spacecraft.

Battlestars have two launch bays enclosed within two quasi-cylindrical nacelles located port and starboard of the ship. One of the bays is known as "launch bay alpha" (Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I).

The launch bays are directly adjacent to 16 launch tubes each, which are slanted towards the battlestar's aft. Designed solely for Viper craft, each of the sixteen launch tubes has a track in the launch bay where the Viper sits. An elevator provides access to the launch bay ("Saga of a Star World", "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I").

In addition, a rapid transport trolley permits fast transportation from the pilots' quarters to the launch tubes when the ship goes on red alert (Saga of a Star World).

Related Images

• 
  View of the rear area of a launch bay.

Notes

• Presumably, the second launch bay is called "launch bay beta", though there is no dialogue that supports this.
• According to Encyclopedia Galactica, a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979:

Along with the bachelor officer's quarters, the launch bay is "bathed in red light so that the pilot's eyes will be ready for the darkness of space" during a red alert.

• This area is roughly equivalent to the hangar deck on Re-Imagined Series battlestars.

External links

• Paxton, Susan J.. Official Universal blueprints of the launch bay and corresponding launch tube, complete with legend. (backup available on Archive.org)

(in ). Retrieved on 1 January 2006.