One of the shuttlecraft of the USS Enterprise, numbered NCC-1701/2, which was launched to search the surface of Taurus II for the missing Galileo and its seven crew.
The Columbus is a class F shuttlecraft and a sister of the better-known Galileo. It appears in the episode The Galileo Seven, set in 2267.
When the Galileo is pulled off course by the quasar-like Murasaki 312 and crashes on Taurus II, the Enterprise's sensors and transporters are made unreliable by the same phenomenon. Kirk launches the Columbus to fly a search pattern over the planet while landing parties look on the ground, all under pressure from High Commissioner Ferris, who insists the ship leave to deliver medical supplies to Makus III. The search fails and the Columbus is recalled as the deadline passes; the survivors are only found when Spock ignites the Galileo's fuel as a flare.