Interstellar Alliance

Whitestars are the primary vessel used by the governing body of the Interstellar Alliance. They are the smallest available vessels that can open a vortex into hyperspace. They are also the fastest available vessel larger than a starfighter. Bits of technology donated by the Vorlons allow superior sensors, automatic internal repair systems, and some form of defensive shielding. They are capable of landing on the ground, as one did to rescue Garibaldi from a Drazi planet. They can also carry at least four Minbari fighters.

Delenn's description of the Whitestar.

The Whitestar vessels have incorporated the Vorlon defense system. Lennier explained in War Without End that this shield system adapts to weapons it has encountered. He stated that it learns from experience. It is possible that no two Whitestar vessels are exactly the same after they have been exposed to different combat situations. Each vessel may have a separate defense mechanism tuned to the weapons that particular vessel has encountered. Lennier stated that this shield system deflects most of the energy of a weapon, "leaving only the physical impact." This defense system is incapable of fully protecting a Whitestar against capital warship weaponry, as Drazi, Centauri and Earthforce warships destroyed Whitestars on several occasions during the series. However, this system is very effective against starfighter weapons, as seen in combat against Shadow and Earthforce fighters.

Description of the Whitestar's shields.

Omega destroyer criples a Whitestar.

The original Whitestar destroyed a Shadow vessel in the 4th season episode Walkabout. This required a sustained, concentrated beam of several seconds' duration. An upper limit on the defensive capability of Shadow vessels is known from their destruction by nuclear weapons in Into the Fire. This upper limit is 250,000 terajoules.

The Shadow vessel was being "jammed" by Lyta Alexander, the Whitestar was firing at maximum power, and Lennier transferred power from the jump engines to the weapons to provide even more firepower than would normally be available. The scene changed twice (external, to the bridge of the Whitestar, then back to external), so accurate timing is difficult. The entire on-screen time in which the Whitestar was firing was 30 seconds. Of those 30 seconds of screen time, 20 were spent on the bridge, with Sheridan conversing with his crew. The other 10 seconds were views of the beam actually striking the ship.

If the beam duration was 20 seconds, the maximum sustained firepower of the Whitestar over a short period of time is no more than 12,500 terawatts. This upper limit is generous, as the upper limit on the Shadow vessel's defenses is used, and Lyta Alexander's psychological "jamming" may have affected the Shadow vessel's defenses. The Shadow vessel "shriveled up" instead of being blown apart as its counterpart was by the bomb's explosion. This may or may not require less destructive energy.

Whitestar destroys a Shadow vessel.
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In War Without End, the original Whitestar was in pursuit of several Shadow fighters that were carrying a large fusion bomb toward Babylon 4. The Shadows were approximately 3,000 kilometers from the station according to Lennier's sensors, but were not within "blast range" of the station yet (the range at which the bomb could damage the station). After several minutes of pursuit at the Whitestar's maximum rate of acceleration, the Whitestar had not yet closed to within firing range, as Marcus stated that the Shadow vessels were "still out of optimum range of the automatic systems."

The Shadows entered "blast range" of the station at approximately the same time the Whitestar entered this "blast range." Thus the Whitestar was approximately the same distance from the bomb as the Babylon 4 station was. The bomb was still not in range of the Whitestar's targeting systems, so Ivonova continued firing on manual control. After several attempts, she hit the bomb, which detonated. The detonation of the bomb damaged Sheridan's "time-stabilizer" device, and disrupted the station's sensors.

Since the bomb was not within blast range of the station at 3,000 kilometers, and the blast range of the bomb was greater than the Whitestar's weapons range, the Whitestar's maximum weapons range (for accurate targeting) must be less than 3,000 kilometers.

Statements used to calculate upper limit on weapons range.

Whitestars easily have enough firepower to destroy advanced capital warships in a reasonable amount of time. This is evidenced in Lines of Communication, when a single Whitestar destroyed the Drakh mothership. Working in small groups, they also disabled many Earthforce destroyers in other episodes.

Whitestars have at least three types of weapons. The mounts on the wings have twin barrels on each side, for a total of four barrels. They fire twin pulses which are white in color. They are most often used against fighters. The mounts on the nose of the ship fire green pulses. There are two barrels. They are most often used against larger, slower moving targets, like warships or defense platforms. Under the "chin" of the ship is mounted a beam weapon. It is the most powerful weapon the ship has, and is also most often used against heavy targets.

The most special thing about the Whitestars is their ability to form a jump point into hyperspace. Most ships of this small size are unable to accomplish this. Centauri medium cruisers form their own jump points routinely, and operate independently. Since this capability in Whitestars is considered so shocking, they must be significantly smaller than Centauri medium cruisers.

This image is from Objects at Rest, the next to last episode of the series. Sheridan's head is 20 pixels tall. The window is 82 pixels tall and 87 pixels wide. In this image, since the average human head is approximately 20 centimeters in diameter, each pixel represents approximately 1 centimeter. Thus, the window has an upper limit of 82 centimeters tall and 87 centimeters wide.

This image is from the same episode and scene. Sheridan is still standing and saluting to the crew of Babylon 5 (seen to the left of his ear). In this image, Sheridan's head is 60 pixels tall. The windows are 114 pixels tall and 121 pixels wide. This indicates a lower limit of 38 centimeters in height and 40 centimeters in width.

The same scene, same episode. The windows are 2 pixels tall, the entire bridge is 44 pixels wide, indicating an upper limit of 18 meters and a lower limit of 8.4 meters. The Whitestar is as wide as the image at 319 pixels, and has an upper limit of 139 meters; lower limit of 60 meters. The front section of the vessel is closer and at 157 pixels wide, has an upper limit of 68 meters in width.

This image allows scaling of the height of the bridge module. The windows are 5 pixels tall, and the entire bridge module is 27 pixels tall, indicating an upper limit of 4.5 meters, and a lower limit of 2.1 meters.

This image is from the same episode and scene as well. The Whitestar scaled here is directly between the camera and the front of Babylon 5. The entire face of the station is 390 pixels wide and the shuttlebay is 76 pixels wide. The Whitestar is 149 pixels wide, giving it an upper limit of 127 meters wide (assuming the face of the station is 333 meters wide).

This image is from Matters of Honor. The bridge module is 13 pixels tall and the entire image is 288 pixels wide. This indicates that the length of the visible portion of the Whitestar is between 100 meters long (upper limit) and 47 meters long (lower limit). This is a significant fraction of the entire length of the vessel.

This image is from Meditations on the Abyss. Three Minbari fighters are side-by-side in the shuttle/fighter bay of a Whitestar (the "Maria"). The bay is not much wider than the three fighters, as they are positioned close together. The fighters have an upper limit of 17 meters wide, so the bay is likely not much more than 60 meters wide.

This image is from the same episode and shows the above fighters launching. One fighter is currently exiting the bay and measures here at 50 pixels wide. The bay opening is 205 pixels wide. The aft end of the bay is 307 pixels wide. A few meters closer, the bay measures 411 pixels wide. Thus the bay, which is as wide as the main body of the ship, is approximately 4-8 times the width of the fighter. The fighter is between 5 and 17 meters wide, giving the bay lower and upper limits of 20 and 136 meters respectively.

This image is from the same episode. The same two fighters are leaving the bay of the Whitestar. The closer fighter is 114 pixels wide and the farther one (on the right) is 60 pixels wide. The fins of the Whitestar are 201 pixels apart where they meet the body of the ship. The entire image is 347 pixels wide. This suggests that the fins of the Whitestar are between 16 and 98 meters apart scaling by the distant fighter, or between 9 and 52 meters scaling by the closer fighter. This is consistent with the scaling of the inside of the bay, performed twice above.

This image is also from Matters of Honor. The fins on the back are 18 pixels apart, the entire ship is 100 pixels wide, and the ship is 197 pixels long.

Using the upper limit of separation of the fins, the ship is 545 meters wide and 1075 meters long, many times the size of a Centauri medium cruiser, which can easily form its own vortex into hyperspace.

If we use the upper limit of width of the vessel, then it is no more than 250 meters long, still as large as the upper limit on a Centauri medium cruiser. The fins would be approximately 23 meters apart. However, this Whitestar is positioned at a slight angle from the camera, which could easily allow for several meters of error.

This image is from War Without End. The Whitestar is about to attach to Babylon 4. The entire ship is 90 pixels wide, and 180 pixels long. Thus, in this and the image above, the ship is very close to exactly half as wide as it is long. The fins are 18 pixels apart.

Thus, using the ship's upper limit of 127 meters in width, it has an upper limit of 254 meters in length. Using the lower limit of 60 meters in width, it is at least 120 meters long. Using the upper limit of fin separation, the ship has an upper limit of 980 meters long. The lower limit of fighter bay width (similar to the fin separation) points toward a ~200 meter long vessel.

From War Without End, the "neck" of the ship is 18 pixels tall, and the entire bridge module is 35. The drop-down tunnel to Babylon 4 is 20 pixels tall and 16 pixels wide. Since the bridge module is between 2 and 4.5 meters tall, the "neck" to the bridge and the drop-down tunnel are both on the order of 1-2.5 meters in diameter.

Note that the ship has at least three decks.

Again, the neck is half as tall as the entire bridge (which allows a lot of head room) by actual pixel measurement. Note how the neck angles up and opens wider as it reaches the bridge.

Note that the passageway is not visible.

Neck is again half as tall as the bridge by actual pixel count.

The floor is not on the bottom of the bridge module (Sheridan is not that tall). His feet would be just below the bottom of this image. He has plenty of head room. The neck would be easily more than half of this height, and would allow him to walk freely.

This image is of the main hallway of the first Whitestar. Sheridan is 76 pixels tall, and the hallway is 142 pixels tall. Assuming Sheridan is 1.8 meters tall, the hallway is 3.4 meters in height. This is probably indicative of the deck heights in the ship. It is not the walkway to the back of the bridge module.

Sketch of a Whitestar from the Babylon 5 Security Manual. In this scale drawing, the ship is 262.5 meters long and 125 meters wide. The windows of the ship are over 3 meters tall in themselves. Just the glass is almost as tall as the big hallway scaled above.

This means that this hallway should be the same height as...

...these windows.

Which it obviously is not. In the image on the left, the shorter line represents the height of the bridge windows by actual scaling. The scale drawing is either inappropriately proportioned, or inappropriately sized.

Animation of camera zooming to Whitestar windows from Objects at Rest

These images show Whitestars in close proximity to Omega class destroyers built by Earthforce. They are an insignificant fraction of the size of the Earthforce destroyer. We have never seen an Earthforce shuttle enter or exit the Whitestar's bay. Atmospheric or long range shuttles always dock with the ship on its bottom side. They never head toward the fighter bay. They invaribly are seen heading toward the bottom side of the ship. Perhaps they dock whith the ship at the tunnel that was used to enter Babylon 4?

Shuttle docking with a Whitestar. Click on the image for video clip.

The Whitestar between the camera and the Centauri medium cruiser is definitely the smaller ship.

Size Overview
Length 120-250 meters
Width 60-125 meters

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