space ships

Launched in 2245, the original and illustrious starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 was built in the San Francisco Yards orbiting Earth. Previously captained by Robert April and Christopher Pike before coming under the command of Captain James T. Kirk.

The starship underwent several refits, most notably in 2270, involving an upgrade of most systems and the replacement of the bridge and warp-drive nacelles.

Shortly before its decommissioning in 2285, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 was destroyed by James Kirk when threatened by Klingon capture.

The second Federation starship to bear the name U.S.S. Enterprise.

Under the command of recently-demoted Captain James Kirk, the ship was launched in 2286 after Kirk and crew saved Earth from an alien probe.

The ship was soon called into service to address a hostage incident on Nimbus III in 2287. Later, under some resistance from Kirk but at the urging of Spock, the ship was sent to escort Klingon chancellor Gorkon to a peace conference on Earth. During the mission, Gorkon was assassinated, and the peace talks were called off. Later, the Enterprise crew proved essential to the success of the rescheduled summit at Khitomer. The ship was set for decommissioning following the talks.

The third Federation starship to bear the name U.S.S. Enterprise.

During her routine maiden voyage under Captain Harriman, the starship received a distress call from two El-Aurian transport vessels caught in a strange, mysterious energy ribbon. Kirk, on board as an honored guest, assists in the rescue and in freeing the Enterprise, now caught in the temporal field. He is successful, but as the Enterprise pulls away, the ribbon suddenly strikes the starship, tearing a large gash through the hull and leaving only debris where Kirk was working.

The fourth starship to bear the name U.S.S. Enterprise, commanded by Captain Rachel Garrett.

The ill-fated but historic ship was lost with all hands aboard some in 2366 after it answered a distress call from the Klingon's Narendra III outpost and engaged three attacking Romulan warbirds -- a heroic sacrifice that further cemented the growing trust between the two governments.

Still, the act was more substantive than anyone could have guessed: the battle created a temporal rift that swallowed the ship and left no trace of its impending mercy run in an alternate universe, where the lack of its heroism contributed to friction that led to a long all-out war between the two powers that the UFP was slowly losing by 2366. The tear in time was not healed until U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C's 123 survivors, commanded after Captain Garrett's death by helmsman Castillo and the alternate time-line's Tasha Yar from the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, made the trip back through to certain death in their interrupted battle.

The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D was a Galaxy-class extended-duration starship and the flagship of Starfleet. The fifth starship to be named Enterprise, she was commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

With a total of 42 decks, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D was twice the length and had eight times the interior space of the Constitution-class ships of over a century earlier; she carried a combined crew and passenger load of about 1,012.

Defensive systems included 10 phaser banks, 250 photon torpedoes, and a high capacity shield grid; there are some 4,000 power systems in all aboard ship. Full acceleration time from reverse, sub-light impulse through nominal top warp speed, warp 9, was 0.03 milliseconds. The ship achieved maximum speed of warp 9.5 maximum when pursued by the entity known as "Q"; at warp 9.3 its engines had passed the red line. By stardate 43205, she had already logged tens of thousands of light-years since setting out around stardate 41153.7 after Jean-Luc Picard formally became her first captain on stardate 41124.

An average day aboard ship, according to Lieutenant Commander Data, included four birthdays, two personnel transfers, two chess tournaments, a secondary school play, four promotions, the celebration of the Hindu Festival of Lights -- and a birth and wedding. Some 13 planets were represented among the ship's complement as of stardate 44247.

During the Borg incursion of 2366, Decks 23-25 were sliced open by the enemy during the final battle over Earth, requiring a refit at Earth Station McKinley which lasted 5-6 weeks. It was far less damage than the kamikaze warp-driven collision Commander Riker had readied as one last recourse, however. During that refit, the starship received a phaser upgrade as well as damage repair and a dilithium chamber articulation frame.

It off-loaded the original three Runabouts and the first arriving officers at Deep Space Nine. The U.S.S. Enterprise-D was destroyed in 2371 after an attack by renegade Klingons breached her warp core; although the saucer section separated before the breach, the force of the explosion caused the section to crash on the planet Veridian III. Fortunately, losses were minimal.

New Sovereign-class starship, registry NCC-1701-E, commanded by Jean-Luc Picard since its launch on stardate 49827.5 from the San Francisco Yards over Earth. With 24 decks, it was equipped with the latest in equipment and defenses, including quantum torpedoes. It did not go into full service immediately, even for shakedowns; by stardate 50893.5 the ship had only been in space and fully crewed for nearly a year. Having plunged into a temporal wake near Earth created by invading Borg, it visited the time of Cochrane's pioneering warp drive test and first contact with Vulcans in 2063 to repel the Borg's would-be sabotage.

The largest and most powerful of Romulan spacecraft, first detected in late 2364 by the Federation in the first Romulan meeting in 53 years. Nearly twice the length overall of a Galaxy-class Federation starship, this vessel used an artificial quantum singularity to power its warp-drive system. Decks are lettered and sections numbered; some quarters are on C deck; Launch Bay 3 is on Deck E, Section 25. It carries at least three shuttlecraft areas, known as "Launching Bays." Even through a cloak, warp signature may be detected at speeds above warp 6.