Type 8 shuttlecraft
The Type 8 shuttlecraft was a type of Federation-designed auxiliary space vessel utilized for short term missions.

Service history
The Type 8 shuttlecraft was introduced around 2371, and were part of the  vessel's standard shuttlecraft complement, although generally the Class 2 shuttle was preferred over the Type 8. ()

In 2372, Tom Paris used a holodeck simulation of a Type 8 shuttle to teach Kes how to pilot a shuttle. ()

Technical data
Type 8 shuttles were composed of several materials, including duranium, magnesite, and carbon. ()

Aesthetically, the main body of the Type 8 was based roughly on the older Type 6 shuttlecraft in appearance. The revised differences  included smaller port and starboard windows, a ridge line (spine) running along the top of the shuttle, the upper half of the cabin (fore and aft) overlapped the bottom half of the hull, and the warp nacelles were more compact and refined, mounted on pylons that detached the nacelles from the main body of the shuttle from above the nacelle. 

Among the systems found aboard the Type 8 were shields, port and starboard phaser banks, a transporter, and maneuvering thrusters. () The Type 8's phasers were powerful enough to overpower a Kazon fighter. ()

Interior  
Internally the Type 8 was virtually indistinguishable from the Type 6. 

Entry to the shuttle was through a large hatch in the rear of the craft. There were benches for passenger seating in the aft section, parallel to the rear walls, with ample room for cargo. 

The cockpit had two swiveled pilot chairs with approximately 180° of forward control consoles split between the two seats with a small centrally located viewscreen/monitor. ()

Shuttles of the class

Appendices

Appearances

Background information
The Type 8 designation was not mentioned on-screen, but rather was derived from background sources and referenced by name in the . It was designed by Richard James. 

The miniature used for this type of shuttlecraft as well as the sets used for its interior were actually slightly modified versions of the miniature and sets of the Type 6 shuttlecraft from , as there was initially no money in s budget for a new shuttlecraft to be designed and constructed for the series, despite both Richard James and Michael Okuda hoping that Voyager would have a shuttlecraft design of its own. (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager)

The Tereshkova studio model, which measured 25"x16"x10½" was sold on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction for $12000, or $14400 with premium.

Continuity issues 
During the course of Voyagers series run, primarily during season's two, three, and four, the Type 8 shuttle was often misrepresented as being a Type 6 shuttle. This was perhaps best illustrated by the fact that they both shared the same interior shuttle set that always displayed the MSD for the Type 8 shuttle regardless of the intended shuttle type. 

The aforemention was further compounded by the fact that Type 8 shuttle stock footage was often used to represent Type 6 shuttles to  visually represent the same vessel during a single appearance, per the following annotations:

Though clearly seen descending through the atmosphere of the Nezu colony planet as a Type 8 shuttle, in "Rise", the full scale mockup of the Type 6 Sacajawea was used to represent the same shuttle that had also crash landed on the same planet, complete with letters from the latter ship's name and nacelles.

The interior of Paris' shuttle, appearing in "Before and After", used set for the Type 6/8 shuttlecraft, complete with MSD's of the latter type, to depict the interior of the otherwise shown from the exterior to be a Class 2 shuttle.

Though appearing using several recycled clips of Type 8 footage (such as generic spaceflight), Seven's shuttle, appearing in "The Raven", was actually a Type 6 shuttle, based on the creation of new footage (escaping from Voyager, confronting other ships, and planetary approach) for the episode.

External link 

de:Typ-8-Shuttle
it:Navetta di tipo 8
Federation shuttle classes
Memory Alpha articles named from supplementary resources