Spinner,
Yeah, the shuttle was a prototype built by Captain Jamie Takahashi. He's a bit of a maverick, a 20 year old "mutant" who only has his position because he's considered an experiment. Excentric, but extremely qualified. Unfortunately the shuttle was destroyed in 2403 during a skirmish of the Parallel Universe War of 2403.
Here's another of my Star Trek Images
Galileo Class. It's a Pre-TOS scout type.