25

At the end of the episode "Serpent's Lair", SG-1 and Bratak win the day against Apophis' planned attack on Earth, but find themselves essentially stranded in orbit aboard crippled death gliders. The US space shuttle Endeavour appears, then we cut to the happy ending scene in the Gate Room.

How was Endeavour actually able to help them? There's no way to exit the gliders without being exposed to space and no means of docking, nor do they have space suits with them.

Are we to assume the still-occupied gliders were simply placed into the cargo bay and then rode down that way?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
33

There doesn't seem to be a good reason why that wouldn't be the case. Both ships were relatively low on power but the key concern seems to be that they're going to burn up in the atmosphere rather than there being any shortage of air.

Since we know that gliders can fold their wings and since there's enough space in the shuttle for both gliders, it seems sensible that they were put into the (unpressurised) cargo hold and then landed as normal.

CARTER: Same here, sir. But I don't think we bought ourselves much time. Our glider's had it.

TEAL'C: I concur.

CARTER: We got cooked pretty bad in the explosion.

O'NEILL: Captain?

CARTER: We're low on power and in a fairly low orbit, so I don't imagine it will be too much longer before we burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

According to the MGM-Licensed "Stargate SG-1 Goauld Death Glider Collector Scale Replica", the Death-Glider's dimensions are 45.9ft x 27.99ft x 14ft. With the wings fully folded and stowed, the dimensions would shrink to 15ft x 27.99ft x 14ft. That being the case, there would be sufficient space in the Shuttle's cargo hold to store both gliders (stacked sideways) with a few feet left over.

Death Glider replica

ship schematics

Improve this answer
9
  • 1
    Assuming they could be secured properly... sideways would be an uncomfortable and perhaps hazardous way to ride the re-entry G-forces, and "in the dark" would be kinda scary I should think, but better than the alternative, I suppose.
    – Anthony X
    Jul 16, 2017 at 19:36
  • 1
    @AnthonyX - The glider has artificial gravity, Being sideways makes no difference, nor do the g-forces and the craft has its own internal lighting.
    – Valorum
    Jul 16, 2017 at 19:45
  • 2
    @AnthonyX - They clearly have an audio hookup though. Plus they're already in low orbit which means that they'd be on the ground in less than two hours; livescience.com/33402-how-land-space-shuttle-atlantis.html
    – Valorum
    Jul 16, 2017 at 19:48
  • 4
    Except for getting unloaded, and clearing customs and immigration! Anyway maybe that's why the gliders were built to that dimension, or the Shuttle. Standard space-going containers.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Jul 16, 2017 at 22:08
  • 5
    @Luaan The space shuttle's cargo bay isn't pressurized.The doors are not air tight and the bay actually has open vents so that atmosphere remains equalized with the exterior since it's not strong enough to maintain pressure. They pretty much had to stay in the gliders the whole way down.
    – Kevin Fee
    Jul 17, 2017 at 22:27

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.