CONTENTS unless otherwise stated
This page	Bridge module Voyager's "spine", aft of the bridge      sensor platform, docking port/airlock doors, aft torpedo launchers
"Specifications" is a sub-section of the SHIP section. Another sub-section is "Ship's Tour" (over 400 pictures and diagrams).

Source: ST:M

The bridge is a free-flying module, complete with its own maneuvering thrusters.

The bridge is located at the very top of the ship. Below it can be seen the windows of Janeway's quarters and below them the messhall's windows. [#140 Good Shepherd]

The bridge module also contains two turbolift docking shafts for easy access to a starbase.

The area around deck 1 also contains sensor pallets, formation lights and escape pod hatches.

A free-flying bridge or saucer module has long been a design feature in the construction of certain Federation starships. Captain James Kirk once ordered his chief engineer Montgomery Scott to prepare for saucer separation when the USS Enterprice NCC-1701 was threatened at planet Gamma Trianguli VI in 2267, [TOS: The Apple]. Galaxy-class starships have the saucer separation facility, with the dramatic maneuver first seen in [TNG]'s first-ever story [TNG: Encounter At Farpoint].

Immediately behind the bridge is an area which contains spacesuit lockers, an airlock, and a small office space (possibly the First Officer's and/or the Security & Tactical Officer's).

There is also a weapons locker for fast and ready access for when, say, the captain gives the order, "Arm yourselves"; but the weapons locker is not close enough for weapons to be fetched as an enemy beams on to the bridge - in [The Swarm] the bridge crew is already armed and thus able immediately to counter the members of the Swarm who materialise on the bridge.

The area behind the bridge also contains two escape pods. As there are only two, presumably most of the bridge crew must utilise escape pods further away if the order is given to abandon ship, as in [Year of Hell] whose events 'unhappened', in [The Haunting of Deck 12] and in [#162 Workforce Part One]. Release of escape pods is seen in [Year of Hell] and [Workforce], although retrieval of escape pods is never seen on tv.

I conjecture that also in the area immediately behind the bridge is the head (toilet), should any of the bridge crew need it.

Top view of part of the ship's upper dorsal spine aft of the bridge
Source: STMech

Source: ST:M

Aft of the bridge and down Voyager's "spine" the specification includes: two airlock doors (the pinkish part shown in the left picture) a large sensor platform immediately behind the bridge at the top of the ship's dorsal section (shown in the centre of the picture) the aft-firing photon torpedo launchers umbilical connect ports

Part of the upper dorsal spine aft of the bridge Source: STMech

Paramount deliberately designed the docking port/airlock doors as copies of the studio stage 9 shuttlebay doors, and therefore also the holodeck doors, in case they ever had to build a piece of the exterior hull. The airlock doors are situated lower down the "spine" than the sensor platform and above the aft-firing photon torpedo launchers.

Source: ST:M

Source: ST:M

Below the docking port/airlock doors are twin photon torpedo launchers. This Starfleet design was first seen on USS Voyager. For picture sequence of Voyager deploying photon torpedoes like mines, from these launchers, against the Krenim in [#76 Year of Hell, Part One], beam here.

The umbilical connect ports are surface hard connect points for servicing and re-supply at Federation starbase-rated facilities. Although remote from those facilities, USS Voyager is occasionally able to dock at a friendly supply space station where many supplies can be obtained. Systems that need to be re-supplied include the electroplasma system (EPS) and optical data network (ODN). For Voyager's environmental systems (Diagram Tour of USS Voyager see under 'Atmospheric Recycling') cryogenic consumables are required such as oxygen and gaseous atmospheric support. If Voyager makes a stop-over at a space station or planetary facility the loading of supplies can include deuterium fuel, fresh water, and wastewater off-loading. Some of Voyager's umbilical ports are used for re-supply. Others are designed more specifically for Federation starbase-rated facilities in that umbilical port connections allow for external support systems to carry the load of the startship's key systems, for instance, EPS external support, external synthetic gravity support, and external SIF/IDF (structural integrity field/inertial dampening field) support. (Structural Integrity Field (SIF) Inertial Dampening Field (IDF)) The use of external support systems in that way allows the starship's systems to be shut down for servicing including the infrequent but regular baryon sweeps (as seen in [TNG: Starship Mine], an episode which guest-stars Tim Russ as villain Devor). The term "umbilical" was first used in [TNG: Remember Me] when the First Officer orders "Prepare for umbilical disconnect." referring to disconnection from Starbase 133.