A Compendium of Spacecraft #5

from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Heart of Gold

For some reason I had always though of this as a black ship, almost invisible against the blackness of space. However, in the book the Heart of Gold was described as huge, 150 meters long, and shaped like a sleek running shoe. It was perfectly white and mindbogglingly beautiful.

In the television series it was oddly shaped:

Then in the movie it was just a spherical blob:

either way, it was the first spacecraft to make use of the Infinite Improbability Drive.

The craft was stolen by then-President Zaphod Beeblebrox at the official launch of the ship. The ship picked up Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, who were floating unprotected in deep space, having just escaped the destruction of earth.