Flight pod

The Galactica, as with other Battlestars, has two flight pods: One port and one starboard. The flight pods contain the landing bays within the top and the Hangar Deck along with the launch tubes within the bottom half. Normally these two pods are extended so that the landing bays are open to space, but in order to perform a FTL jump, the pods must be retracted.

The port flight pod was the only flight pod on the Galactica currently in use at the time of the Cylon Attack. The starboard flight pod was converted into a pressurized museum of artifacts of the first Cylon War, including with a gift shop in the former launch bay. It was closed off from space until a Cylon Heavy Raider crashed into and depressurized it (Scattered).

In the Mini-Series, viewers witnessed that compartments in the flight pod can be sealed off and vented to kill fires and prevent possible complete decompression and structural buckling. This occurred to the port flight pod after it was struck with a kiloton nuclear missile and was subjected to internal fires that threatened to ignite the ship fuel lines and destroy the ship.