History Main / SpheroidDropship

* The ''Broadsword'' class mercenary cruiser in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}''. Oddly, though its description says it can't land on planets with atmospheres, one does exactly that in ''Adventure 7 Broadsword''.

* In the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' series by Creator/LarryNiven, the General Products Corporation makes two standard hulls for starships (the Type 1 and the Type 4) which are perfectly spherical. The Type 1 is about the size of a basketball and is typically used to make space probes. The Type 4 is a kilometer in diameter and is generally used to move entire colonies all at once.

* Peter F. Hamilton's famous ''[[Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy Night's Dawn]]'' trilogy features a lot of spherical spacecraft (e. g. ''[[CoolStarship The Lady Macbeth]]''), due to the FTL drives creating a spherical area for the travel - anything poking out is cut off. They are mostly used by the Adamists, one of the two major factions of future humanity in that series. While they are never shown to land on planets (instead preferring to ferry freight using a SpacePlane), they could presumably land on a planet vertically due to their huge fusion engines and fuel tanks.

* While not strictly speaking spheres, in the ''Literature/PosleenWarSeries'' by Creator/JohnRingo, the centauroid Posleen utilize Command Dodecahedron (C-Dec) and Battle Dodecahedron (B-Dec) spaceships that have landing capacity as their primary invasion platforms.

* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005'' has [[strike: [[IncrediblyLamePun a ball]]]] tons of fun with this trope. The ''Heart of Gold'' itself is shaped like a huge sphere in its default form, and has a [[https://asylumsfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/HHG-08-1140x760.jpg red colored dropship]] with bigger aerodynamic spoilers and black flame decorations to make it look like a sports car.

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' features The Traveller, a ''Film/{{Sphere}}''-like being that uplifted Humanity, which got mysteriously smacked down a few decades later after exploring the Solar System. The Traveller's [[BlueAndOrangeMorality motives are unknown]], though it seems generally helpful.

A SciFi plot calls for a vehicle that can land on an alien planet and be somewhat badass. A SpacePlane would be cool, but you'd need a runway. So instead, you have a DropShip shaped roughly like a sphere that consists of a vertically mounted rocket engine surrounded by landing struts, fuel, cargo, a control room, and usually a ramp to offload personnel and cargo. The type of engine is unimportant. It can be an actual rocket or a HandWaved "[[DramaticAlienVTOL antigravity generator]]" or "[[PowerFloats reactionless thruster]]".

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* [[Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill2008 The remake]] of ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill'' has a spheroid energy vessel of some sort, instead of the classic FlyingSaucer that landed on the Mall in the original.

* ''Film/{{Sphere}}''. Technically not a drop ship, but still an alien "spacecraft".

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* ''Videogame/{{Destiny}}'' features The Traveller, a ''Film/{{Sphere}}''-like being that uplifted Humanity, which got mysteriously smacked down a few decades later after exploring the Solar System. The Traveller's [[BlueAndOrangeMorality motives are unknown]], though it seems generally helpful.

[[folder: Real Life]]

# Single-stage, surface-to-space capability. {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s usually equip such vessels with interstellar capability, while more primitive variants may only be capable of going between the planet and an orbiting MotherShip.