The Genetech Laboratories Orbital Research Station, alternatively known as the Genetech Orbiting Research Lab, was a compact space station that orbited Gorsh, a planet situated in Wild Space. Genetech Laboratories was the owner, and the station accommodated a staff of forty individuals from the company, including thirty research scientists.
Researchers in teams routinely journeyed to Gorsh's surface utilizing the station's shuttles. Aboard the Genetech Orbiting Research Lab, the scientists harnessed the planet's naturally occurring compounds to create valuable pharmaceuticals and medications. The station's crew also employed automated research probes, operated remotely, to explore Gorsh.
The Genetech Laboratories Orbital Research Station, also called the Genetech Orbiting Research Lab, or simply the Genetech Research Lab, was a space station that maintained a geosynchronous orbit around the planet Gorsh. Gorsh was a waterworld featuring swamp-covered volcanic islands and represented the only habitable world within the Gorsh system located in Wild Space.
This relatively small orbital facility possessed a cargo capacity of three hundred metric tons, stood fifty-three meters in height, and had a diameter of twenty-two meters. It comprised two cylindrical sections; the smaller section served as living quarters for the station's inhabitants, while the larger housed the facility's four power cells. These two cylinders were connected by a pair of conical sections oriented in opposite directions.
At the base of the larger cylinder of the lightly armed station, another cone housed externally mounted, fire-linked dual laser cannons. This conical section transitioned into a single, sizable docking bay, with four large solar collectors positioned at its lower extremity. A sensor array was located on top of the smaller cylindrical section. Furthermore, the cylinder containing the power cells prominently displayed the logo of Genetech Laboratories, the station's proprietor.
During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Genetech Laboratories funded the initial, extensive explorations of the Gorsh system. The Empire then granted the company ownership of everything within that system. Subsequently, the Genetech Orbiting Research Lab was established in orbit around Gorsh, serving as the sole connection between the system and the rest of the galaxy and was not available for purchase.
Groups of Genetech research scientists, numbering one dozen, along with a few armed guards, frequently traveled from the station down to Gorsh's surface. There, the scientists collected unique natural compounds, which were later utilized within the orbital laboratory to produce successful pharmaceuticals and medicinal products for the company. The Genetech Orbiting Research Labs also deployed remote probes to Gorsh, controlled directly from the station, with subsequent teams dispatched to the planet's surface to investigate any unusual findings made by the probes.
The Genetech Laboratories-owned Genetech Orbiting Research Lab's crew consisted of five members, including one gunner. The station also accommodated forty passengers, comprising thirty research scientists and ten Genetech guards. The facility maintained the essential minimum of supplies, with enough consumables to sustain its personnel for six months. The researcher teams traveling from the station to Gorsh's surface were equipped with survival equipment, medicines, breath masks, weapons, sample containers, chemical analyzers, pocket computers, biochem synthesizers, and other necessary field gear.
The upper section of the cramped and spartan Genetech Orbiting Research Lab housed the living quarters for the station's personnel, including staff rooms, a kitchen, and a lounge. Further down, the conical section connected to the largest cylindrical portion of the facility contained fifteen research labs and specimen storage areas.
The same cylinder also housed a launch tube for the station's twelve automated research probes, which could be controlled directly from the station. The docking bay of the Genetech Orbiting Research Lab, which serviced the facility's complement of four three-person drop-shuttles and one ten-person research shuttle, was equipped with a docking hood.
The sourcebook Planets of the Galaxy, Volume One, published in 1991 for West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, introduced the Genetech Orbiting Research Lab. John Paul Lona created an illustration of the station for the book. The reference book The Essential Atlas, published in 2009, placed the Gorsh system, and consequently the Genetech Orbiting Research Lab, in grid square O-3.