Spacecraft

    The Gold Key series of STAR TREK comics was concerned with the adventures of the crew of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise which operated under the auspices of the United Federation of Planets' Starfleet. Because they weren't constrained by special effects budgets, the comic series could deal with fanciful locations and could depict a plethora of new spacecraft and could show wildly different aliens. Below are listed most of the spacecraft and flying vehicles seen in the 61 issues of the Gold Key series of STAR TREK comics. Included for each is an image of the vessel, a brief decription and the issue that it appeared in. Some of the ships listed below were seen in the STAR TREK television series. For these, the description will include any differences between the comic and television versions. For the most part, the STAR TREK comics stories rarely made extensive use of space battles, instead focusing on Kirk and company journeying down to a strange and interesting planet and then interacting with the planet's inhabitants. Several of the vehicle pictures shown below link to much larger images.




Federation Starship
   U.S.S. Enterprise

  Constitution-class Federation starship commanded by Captain james Kirk. the Enterprise was one of a dozen faster than light starships that made up Starfleet in the 2260's. The ship was 947 feet long and possessed a hangar deck which carried several off-ship vehicles such as the Galileo and other shuttlecraft.





Shuttlecraft Galileo

  Standard Federation shuttlecraft which was stored in and deployed from the hangar decks of Starfleet starships such as the U.S.S. Enterprise. The Galileo had twin impulse nacelles and was usually configured to carry seven passengers. Shuttlecraft were used to make planetfall and to travel between starships and starbases.
(Issue #16 "Day of the Inquisitors")

U.S.S. Enterprise
   Shuttlecraft Variant

  Alternate shuttlecraft design used by Federation starships. Like the Galileo shuttlecraft, this variation was impulse powered and was about 30 feet long.
(Issue #14 "The Enterprise Mutiny")


U.S.S. Enterprise
   Remote Utility Pod


  Small three-seated vehicles used by the Federation to perform repairs in space of starship and starbase external structures. These pods had two independently controllable manipulatory claws.
(Issue #33 "The Choice")

Klingon Battle Cruiser
  D-7 class warp-driven battlecruiser used by the Klingon Empire. Comparable in speed and weaponry to the Federation Constitution-class starships, these warcraft were 748 feet long.
(Issue #61 "Operation Con Game")


Romulan Ship

  Starship design used by the Romulan Star Empire in the 2260's. These ships were used by the Romulans to patrol the Neutral Zone between their territory and that of the United Federation of Planets.
(Issue #13 "Dark Traveler")

Windjammer Pirate Starship
  Starship used by star pirates led by the cutthroat Captain Black Jack Nova. The Windjammer had originally been Captain Ben Cannon's vessel until Nova took over, stranding Cannon on a barren planetoid.
(Issue #12 "The Flight of the Buccaneer")

Windjammer Pirate Shuttlecraft

  Shuttlecraft stored in and deployed from the pirate frigate Windjammer. These shuttles were used by the star bucaneers to make planetfall in pursuit of their pirate activities.
(Issue #12 "The Flight of the Buccaneer")

Early Lunar Craft
  Small craft used as a method of short-distance transport along the surface of Earth's moon. The moon hopper could carry several passengers and was used circa the year 2000.
(Reprint Volume #4 "From Sputnik to Warp Drive")


21st-Century Earth Exploratory Craft

  Ion-Impulse Drive Ships ships used in the early 21st century to explore and colonize the solar system. They are used to establish research station on distant moons.
(Reprint Volume #4 "From Sputnik to Warp Drive")

Prison Exile Pod
  One-way prison shuttle pod used by one planet to exile those of their people that were convicted of any of various crimes. The pods were programmed to touch down on one of the explosive planetoids located in a nearby asteroid belt.
(Issue #2 "The Devil's Isle of Space")


Zartan Air Vehicle

  Atmospheric air transport vehicle used by the technologically advanced humanoid inhabitants of the planet Zarta.
(Issue #3 "Invasion of the City Builders")

Air Transport Vehicle
  Atmospheric air vehicle used by the inhabitants of the planet Numero Uno.
(Issue #5 "The Ghost Planet")


Rebel Army Bomber

  Bomber aircraft used by Justin II's green rebel army in their war against Justin I's forces.
(Issue #5 "The Ghost Planet")

Justin I Government
   Attack Craft

  Attack aircraft used by Justin I's orange army against Justin II's green rebels.
(Issue #5 "The Ghost Planet")


Twin Orbital Space Habitats

  Massive space stations employed by Justin I and Justin II as their base of operations.
(Issue #5 "The Ghost Planet")

Orbital Space Shuttle
  Space shuttle design used by Justin I and Justin II to travel between their planet and their twin orbital space habitats.
(Issue #5 "The Ghost Planet")


Deep Space Rocket
  Dressler, the mad, war-craving ruler of a tiny kingdom on Earth. When the rest of Earth's people condemned his actions. When Earth forces were closing in on his kingdom, Dressler opted to flee the Earth using this rocket.
(Issue #7 "The Voodoo Planet")


Exploration Ship

  Exploratory starship used by the technologically advanced humanoids from the "galaxy" Trann.
(Issue #8 "The Youth Trap")

20th Century Earth
  Colonization Ship

  Earth starship created by a small peace movement that wished to flee Earth during that planet's Eugenics Wars. It was built and launched in 1997. The ship eventually found its way to a planet in the Vega VI sector and its crew settled there.
(Issue #10 "Sceptre of the Sun")


Space Transport

  Small space cruiser used by Kirk, Spock and McCoy when they embarked on an undercover mission as space pirates. The U.S.S. Enterprise chased the small vessel with Kirk's team aboard to Tortuga VI in order to convince observers that they were wanted by the Federation.
(Issue #12 "The Flight of the Buccaneer")

Cargo Ship
  Small space cargo transport ship that was preyed upon by the Windjammer pirate vessel commanded by Captain Black Jack Nova. The small cargo ship was attacked and looted and was then left as an empty hulk in space.
(Issue #12 "The Flight of the Buccaneer")


Utopian Airbus
  Flying transport vehicle used on the lush planet Utopia, home of the galactic Traveler.
(Issue #13 "Dark Traveler")


Porto Sled

  Means of personal transportation on the planet Utopia. Niklon, the controller of robots on the paradise world rebelled and sent such vehicles against the planet's inhabitants. The porto sleds were piloted by robots.
(Issue #13 "Dark Traveler")

Hover Sked
  Personal transport sked used on one of the many planets visited by the galactic Traveler.
(Issue #13 "Dark Traveler")


Lost Ships at the Museum
   at the End of Time


  A huge comet collided with the planet Kragar III, destroying it. In a freak occurance, a piece of the planet - the land surrounding a museum - was snatched up and carried off into space. At great speed the museum zoomed through space and was thrown into a hole in the fabric of space. It came to rest in limbo, and over the decades, starships were similarly drawn to limbo and trapped there. These craft landed on the museum grounds and their pilots stayed and lived in the museum building.
(Issue #15 "Museum at the End of Time")

Early Russian spacecraft
  Russian planetary landing craft from early in Earth's space program. A model of the vehicle was an exhibit in the museum which found itself trapped in limbo.
(Issue #15 "Museum at the End of Time")


Short-Range Emergency
   Escape Shuttle


  Ship used to evacuate a larger deep space starship.
(Issue #18 "The Hijacked Planet")

Small Decoy Craft
  In the mid 2260's the ambitious entrepeneur and performer Anzar used such a craft to stage a distraction which allowed his partner, Allura, to escape from the U.S.S. Enterprise after she stole the digitized world of Styro.
(Issue #18 "The Hijacked Planet")


Federation Transport

  Personal transport ship used by Federation special investigator Jay Nordyke. Nordyke landed in the Enterprise's hangar deck on stardate 24:92.5 while he was on a mission to look into ghost sightings at Asteroid Mila XA.
(Issue #19 "The Haunted Asteroid")

Invasion Starship
  Forces that intended to take over the lush world that was home to the kingdom of Caeminon used a fleet of such ships to attack the surface.
(Issue #22 "Siege in Superspace")


Galactic Space
   Patrol Vessel


  One-man starship design used by a force of galactic police authority that operated within the parallel dimension called superspace.
(Issue #22 "Siege in Superspace")

Space Mining Ship
  Used to mine the iron rich planetoids in the Ferrous Asteroid Belt which was discovered in the mid 2160's.
(Issue #24 "The Trial of Captain Kirk")


Kujal Rocket Ship

  Defense and transport ships used by the miniature humanoid inhabitants of the planet Kajal in the little explored space sector 119-D.
(Issue #25 "Dwarf Planet")

Exploratory Space Craft
  Ship design used by humanoid travelers that landed on the wandering asteroid Tactis II. It's two crewmembers eventually died on the planetoid.
(Issue #28 "The Mimicking Menace")


Tritian Perimeter
   Defense Ships


  Small police craft used by the xenophobic inhabitants of the planet Tristas to guard their borders.
(Issue #31 "The Final Truth")

Quodarian Starscout Craft
  Small transport ship routinely used on the planet Quodar.
(Issue #31 "The Final Truth")


Herculan Rocket Plane

  Used by Colonel Mynota on the planet Hercula. Was a suborbital craft armed with heat beams.
(Issue #32 "The Animal People")

Mobita Aircraft
  Air transport planet used by the inhabitants of the planet Mobita.
(Issue #38 "One of Our Captains is Missing")


Earth Transport Craft

  Small low altitude craft used on Earth in the mid 2260's as intracontinental transportation.
(Issue #39 "Prophet of Peace")

Earth Security
   Police Craft

  Air ships used by Earth state security forces in the mid 2260's.
(Issue #40 "Furlough to Fury")


Evictor Starship

  Giant exodus starship used by the Sanoorans to evacuate their world 500,000 years ago just before a rogue star was due to make a close pass to the planet causing destruction and radiation contamination. In the mid 2260's the Sanoora returned to their homeplanet in the ship when the radiation had dissipated. Upon finding a humanoid civilization which had arisen from the castoff population they left behind, demanded that the planet be evacuated to allow them to recolonize. This giant starship was six miles (9656 meters) in diameter.
(Issue #41 "The Evictors" and Issue #50 "The Planet of No Life")

Nrakan Defense Ship
  Armed interplanetary spacecraft used in the defense fleet of the planet Nraka. Dozens of ships of this type fought a pitched battle to repel the Evictor ship used by the Sanoorans who returned in the mid 2260's to reclaim their planet which they fled half a million years ago due to a coming planetwide cataclysm.
(Issue #41 "The Evictors" and Issue #50 "The Planet of No Life")


Federation Personal Transport

  Used on stardate 19:26:03 to transfer Starfleet technical advisor Barbara McCoy to the U.S.S. Enterprise who was tasked with acting as a special technical avisor in the field of xenobiology. The ship was small enough to enter the Enterprise's hangar deck.
(Issue #43 "World Beneath the Waves")

Evacuation Spaceships
  Three ship designs used by the race of intelligent diminutive humanoids who once worshipped their ancient supercomputer called Wotam. They used such ships to leave their world and colonize another planet since their sun's supernova was imminent.
(Issue #46 "Mr. Oracle")



Individual Hovercraft

  Personal transport craft used by the members of the technologically advanced humanoid civilization on the planet Beta Niobe III in the mid-to-late 2260's.
(Issue #47 "This Tree Bears Bitter Fruit")

Federation Shuttlecraft
  Federation shuttlecraft. Used by Kirk and Spock to pick up Professor Patrick Moore on planet M317 to then transport him to a scientific conference on Beta Aurigae.
(Issue #48 "Sweet Smell of Evil")


Experimental Starfleet
   Hyperwarp Ship


  New ship design created to test a new hyperwarp drive capable of propelling vessels at warp 13 (2197 c). A fleet of five ships (registry number X-1 though X-5) were lost in the vicinity of Gamma Canaris N when they were first launched around 2267.
(Issue #49 "A Warp in Space")

Sanooran Transport Ship.
  Used by Dahri a guide to transport Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Jinz to see the sipreme council.
(Issue #50 "The Planet of No Life")


Special Federation Missile

  Special Federation missile which converted to a hovering helicraft used by Enterprise crew to demonstrate to the Sanoorans the Federation's chemical means to eliminate radiation contamination from the planet's soil.
(Issue #50 "The Planet of No Life")

Mazdan Battlecruiser
  Mazdan battleship used by the inhabitants of the planet Mazda in their war with the Arimans. The Mazdan people had originated on the neighboring planet Arima.
(Issue #51 "Destination Annihilation")


Ariman Battle Barge

  Ariman battleship used by the inhabitants of Arima in their war with their neighboring planet Mazda.
(Issue #51 "Destination Annihilation")

Raider Ship
  Transport ship used by raiders who violated the planetary atmospheric lock on the Federation animal conservation preserve on the planet Salvum. The raiders made off with animals that were taken to the planet Grotus where they would be used in animals fights.
(Issue #54 "Sport of Knaves")


Survey Plane

  Helicopter design used by the custodians of the Federation animal conservation preserve on the planet Salvum.
(Issue #54 "Sport of Knaves")

Federation Transport Spaceship
  Old style Federation medium-sized transport spaceship. Kirk, Spock and Scotty used the ship to go undercover as unsavory traders on a mission to planet Grotus in search of rare animals stolen from the Federation animal conservation preserve on the planet Salvum.
(Issue #54 "Sport of Knaves")


Stoyak Attack Hovercraft

  Anti-gravity attack craft used by the Stoyak people on the planet Bira III in their battles with the telekinetic savage Garda people who also inhabited their world.
(Issue #55 "A World Against Itself")

21st Century Earth
   Evacuation Rockets

  Mass evacuation ships used by the inhabitants of 21st century Earth in an alternate timeline caused by Kirk, Spock and McCoy's interference with Hannibal's historic battle via the Guardian of Forever.
(Issue #56 "No Time Like the Past")


Space Pod

  One of many launched by a race of technologically advanced bipedal lizard people. The being that would be known as the great Vrunon on the planet Jodarr, landed on that planet several years earlier as a prenatal spore enclosed in such a space pod.
(Issue #57 "Spore of the Devil")

Agricultural Flyer.
  Flying chemical spraying craft used for agricultural purposes by the inhabitants of Njura.
(Issue #59 "To Err is Vulcan")


Rebel Attack Craft

  Type of fast attack ships used by patriotic rebels from neighboring planets in their successful uprising against Njuran Emperor Kring in the 2230's.
(Issue #59 "To Err is Vulcan")

Marauder Ship
  Attack ship used by the space marauder Zar-tan to menace the inhabitants of Terrellian II.
(Issue #61 "Operation Con Game")


Harry Mudd's Spaceship

  Small starship used by Harcourt Fenton Mudd during a time in the mid 2260's when he duped the crew of a Klingon battlecruiser into buying quantities of unstable dilithium.
(Issue #61 "Operation Con Game")


STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Gold Key is a registered trademark of Western Publishing Corp.

Email: cdanhauser@yahoo.com