Star Trek: 10 Devices That Every Starfleet Ship Has

All large Starfleet ships have hangars where shuttlecraft are stored. Voyager had two hangars and the Enterprise-D had five! Even the comparatively tiny Defiant from Deep Space Nine could host at least one Chaffee-type shuttlepod.

The shuttles are used to carry crew away from the ship on special missions or personal vacations and are equipped with minimal weapons and sometimes a transporter or warp drive. They can also be used to land on planets if transporters are blocked. Often, a ship's shuttles will be off doing their own missions while the mothership does something else, eventually meeting back up.

Starfleet shuttles range dramatically in size from tiny, cramped shuttlepods, to the massive Danube-class runabouts used by Deep Space Nine. Runabouts are by far the most advanced shuttlecraft in Starfleet as they have crew quarters, significantly more living space and more advanced weapons than a standard shuttle, and can reach speeds up to warp 5. They are basically tiny starships.