Ranger III - Spacecraft on the sci-fi series BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY/NBC/1979-81. Ranger-III was a NASA spacecraft (a NASA shuttle craft), the last of Earth's deep space probes, piloted by astronaut Captain William "Buck" Rogers (Gil Gerard). A freak accident froze the ship's life support system and sent Ranger III into an elongated orbit that returned it back to Earth 500 years later to a new world ruled by a federation of nations whose capitol city was New Chicago.

The ship was initially rescued by the Draconian Empire, whose beautiful but evil Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley) instantly got the hots for the Terran, Buck Rogers who had been held in a state of suspended animation. Despite the fact that Buck hadn't been with a woman in over 500 years, he still declined the advances of Ardala. What a guy!

There were two models of Ranger III constructed for the series. One in pristine condition seen as Buck Rogers took off on his flight; and one discolored model covered in space dirt to indicate his long trip through space.