Ground assignment
A ground assignment or shore duty was a posting on the surface of a planet, as opposed to space duty aboard a starship.

In 2267, after citing Captain James T. Kirk's apparent culpability in the death of Benjamin Finney, Commodore  offered him an ultimatum – either accept a permanent ground assignment, or face Starfleet Command's discipline. Kirk chose to fight the s in a court martial. Later, after initially calling Kirk a murderer, Jame Finney apologized for her grief-induced outburst and begged Kirk's lawyer, Samuel T. Cogley, to make Kirk change his plea and take a ground assignment instead, as she no longer blamed Kirk for her father's death. ()

After being reassigned to his new posting at Deep Space 9, Commander Benjamin Sisko attempted to nullify his son Jake's desire to live on Bajor instead of "some old space station", his father explained that "the station is in orbit of Bajor. It'll be just like shore duty." ()

See also 
 Deep space assignment

Starfleet
Missions and expeditions