My opinion: It's the cheapest ship, and for a reason. The shuttlecraft is your ship when you start a new game or if you use an escape pod. You should try to get out of it and into something better as soon as possible. Very little shields and armor, as well as little weapon space makes this ship the definate loser in a dog fight. It doesn't have much cargo space, either.
Computer controled: All ships controled by a computer have no uprades on them, therefore a shuttlecraft is an unarmed easy to pillage ship. The Confederates are the only government to use shuttlecrafts and, yes, they'll still get angry if you disable/destroy one.
