Medium Shuttle

The Medium Shuttle is a vehicle that can be unlocked in the Catalog and built for space travel. Like other shuttles, it lets the player leave a planet, enter orbit, and travel to other planets, then choose an available Landing Pad to land on. It is also useful as a small mobile base and a way to mark a landing site so it can be found again later.

The Medium Shuttle uses fuel to launch and travel, and it requires either a Solid-Fuel Thruster or a Hydrazine Thruster fitted with fuel before it can take off. Landing on a planet does not consume fuel, but launching from a planet does. A shuttle cannot take off from underground, and it needs clear space above it to launch. It also cannot land on a Landing Pad that is already occupied by another shuttle, so a free pad must be available at the destination.

Medium Shuttles provide unlimited Oxygen to players tethered to them. If an Oxygenator is installed on board, it will supply Oxygen to connected Tethers and Platforms as well. Without an Oxygenator, the shuttle itself still keeps the player alive, but it does not extend oxygen through the usual base network. This makes the shuttle a practical temporary base when exploring or setting up a new outpost.

Shuttles also produce a very small amount of power, which is enough for simple automated tasks such as atmospheric resource collection or smelting, but only one device can be powered at a time because the output is extremely limited.

• A Medium Storage can be placed in the side slot instead of an Oxygenator to carry more items.
• A packed Oxygenator and a Medium Platform A or C can be brought along if the player wants to place the Oxygenator at the destination.
• Because the shuttle can act as a landmark, it is often used to help players identify a landing area and return to it later.
• Travel planning matters: taking off consumes fuel even if the player returns to the same world, so round trips can fail if there is not enough fuel for both legs.

When equipped with enough fuel, the Medium Shuttle makes interplanetary travel straightforward and is one of the main tools for reaching new worlds and establishing remote bases.