Battlestar (fictional spaceship)

Battlestars are capital ships from the science fiction universe of Battlestar Galactica, depicted in the original Battlestar Galactica movie and series, the Galactica 1980 spinoff, and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series.

Battlestars are the premier capital ships, effectively the space equivalent of aircraft carriers, of the 12 Colonies of Man; Battlestars have fought for at least five hundred yahren in the Thousand Yahren War against the Cylon Alliance.

The hull is divided into the main hull with the bridge and propulsion systems, and winged hangar bays on the port and starboard sides. Each hangar bay typically carries many Viper Starfighters and several shuttles. Given the large dimensions of the ship design there is an internal rail car system to transport personnel, especially in the event of a battle alert.

The fuel for a Battlestar and its Vipers is called tylium which can be found only on certain planets.

The laser turrets are essentially the same weapon as a Viper's laser cannon based on appearances alone. There are several known types of turret. One, the anti-ship type, is a slow-tracking heavy turret found along the outer edge of both hangar bays. They have longer barrels than other turrets. Above each anti-ship turret is an anti-fighter turret. They are flatter and thinner in appearance and track much faster. Their barrels are smaller and closer together. These weapons however lack the power to significantly damage capital ships.

The forward lasers have only been seen in The Living Legend Part 2 and The Hand of God and are often confused with anti-ship missiles because they use the same graphics. They are orange-colored beam weapons solely for capital ship use. It is not known whether all Battlestars had these lasers or not. When the Galactica attacks a Baseship in "The Hand of God" Commander Adama explicit states that they have reconfigured their lasers to be able to attack the Baseship and showing that they are not a standard mode of weaponry.

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