<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Mothership is a term commonly used for a large spaceship which contains a fleet of smaller ships. Motherships have large bays for these smaller ships and can quickly release them. They are usually used for war. Motherships often house the central command for the fleet of ships they contain.

The term is used in a conventional sense, in science fiction, and in reports of UFOs. A mother ship in UFOlogy might be "cigar-shaped", and release smaller "scout craft".

The gender neutral term "parent craft" has also been used, although its use never really became popular.