Shuttles and orbital infrastructure must match cargo scale

How should a science-fiction setting distinguish its shuttle types?

Separate personnel, heavy-cargo, and assault craft by payload, landing environment, defenses, and the infrastructure needed to move them safely.

Stewart separates small personnel spaceplanes from heavy lifters carrying thousands of tons and from armored assault craft expected to enter contested areas. Large cargo vehicles may need remote landing zones or orbital elevators because the energy directed beneath them would endanger nearby infrastructure. This scale also exposes a television shortcut: bus-sized shuttles cannot meaningfully resupply a starship the size of a liner. Modular craft can swap fighter, bomber, personnel, and cargo packages, but the fleet still needs enough of each expensive module to cover realistic movement and combat demands. Heat management remains part of the design even when the dramatic problem unexpectedly becomes generating rather than rejecting heat.