page_title: Enterprise (NX-01)
section_title: Concept and design
hierarchical_section_title: Enterprise (NX-01) / Concept and design
caption_attribution_description: 2002-2005 Ford Thunderbird photographed in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
context_page_description: Enterprise is a fictional spaceship that appears in the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It had the in-universe registration of NX-01 and appeared earlier in the franchise timeline than any other Starfleet ship named Enterprise.
  The ship is first seen in the pilot episode "Broken Bow" and was seen throughout the series undergoing various upgrades. Its missions included an initial period of deep space exploration and a mission into the Delphic Expanse following the Xindi attack on Earth; it was also instrumental in the formation of the United Federation of Planets with the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites.
  The final appearance occurred in "These Are The Voyages...", where the ship is seen en route to the signing of the Federation charter and the decommissioning of the ship. Enterprise has appeared in several non-canon novels, which describe both its actions in the Romulan War and the vessel's final fate as a museum ship in orbit of Pluto. A model of an NX class ship was seen on screen in the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness, and it has appeared in the video game Star Trek: Encounters.
context_section_description: The first season was originally intended to be based around the construction of the ship. However, UPN wanted a more typical ship-based Star Trek series and so the ship was presented as almost finished in the pilot episode, "Broken Bow". Before the start of the series, the ship was referred to as the SS Enterprise.
  An early design was for a version with a secondary hull, but it appeared to be too similar to the ship seen in The Original Series. That throwback styling had been partially inspired by Berman viewing the throwback concept in the 2002 Ford Thunderbird, itself a modern update of the original Thunderbird. Following that concept, the designers took the styling of the USS Enterprise from The Original Series and updated it, but ultimately it looked too much like a simple update to the same vessel.
  The second design concept was similar to the Akira-class starship as seen on television in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager era, with the producers initially intending to use that class of vessel for Enterprise before Herman Zimmerman convinced them to go with a design with greater inspiration from The Original Series. The Akira itself had been created by Alex Jaeger for the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact with influences from Battlestar Galactica, the Klingon Bird of Prey and the Miranda-class starship originally seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. A similar design was created for Star Trek: The Academy Years, a film proposed by Harve Bennett in 1989. This featured the primary hull of Enterprise seen in The Original Series, but without a secondary hull.
caption: The throwback styling of the 2002 Ford Thunderbird inspired a similar concept (later abandoned) of having Enterprise (NX-01) as a throwback design, including secondary hull, of USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).
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