NX Project The NX Project , also known as the NX Program or NX Test Program , was Starfleet ' s effort to develop a starship using the engine designed by the Warp Five program . Prior to the NX Project , Human ships were incapable of exceeding warp two . History . During the early 22nd century , the Earth Cargo Service was Earth ' s only real presence in outer space ; the crew of these ships would spend years traveling from one planet to another and the Humans with the most space experience were boomer s : the first generation of Humans who were born in outer space . The NX Project was an effort to allow humanity ' s knowledge to expand and continue space exploration ; it was overseen by Commodore Maxwell Forrest from its initial stages in the early 2140s . During this time , the program fielded several test vehicles with prototype versions of the warp five engine . These prototypes were piloted by Commander s Jonathan Archer , A . G . Robinson , Gardner , and Duvall . Captain Jefferies was an engineer on the NX Program , and Lieutenant Charles Tucker III worked on his team . After some initial progress at speeds below warp 2 , the project quickly stalled sometime prior to 2143 . Robinson ' s test flight of the NX - Alpha ended in an explosion after the engines were pushed slightly beyond warp 2 . On the recommendation of the Vulcan Advisory Council , the project was indefinitely suspended . However , Lieutenant Tucker and Commander Archer believed the design to be fundamentally sound . Tucker ' s analysis showed the intermix ratio of the fuel flowing through the antimatter injector s proved to be the root of the problem . Tucker ' s corrections allowed the NX - Beta – illegally piloted by Archer and Robinson – to enjoy a more successful test flight . Though their efforts were a contravention of direct orders , Tucker , Archer and Robinson had effectively confirmed the utility of the warp five engine . Nevertheless , the Vulcan s required over a year of additional ground - based simulations following the NX - Beta flight . Eight months subsequent to this period , in 2145 , Duvall broke the warp 3 barrier in the NX - Delta . ( ) The events of the next five years led to the production of the vessel that would eventually be named the , which became the first starship to achieve warp 4 . ( ) In 2149 , the keel of was laid , and in April of 2151 the ship was finally launched . At that time , another three vessels of the were on the drawing board . Forrest was promoted to admiral , and he selected Archer as the ship ' s commanding officer , over the objections of Vulcan Ambassador Soval , who felt that Gardner would have been a better choice . ( ) " Enterprise " was joined by in November of 2154 , delayed from June due to engine trouble . ( ) In 2154 , Forrest was killed in an embassy bombing on while saving the life of Soval . He was replaced in overseeing the NX Program by then - Admiral Gardner . ( ) Appendices . Background information . No mention was ever made of an " NX - Gamma " , which according to the Greek alphabet would have been between Beta and Delta . It is unclear what , if any , relationship the , Earth ' s first warp four vessel as per , had to the NX Project . If the NX Project continued to use the names of NASA space shuttle orbiter s in sequence after " Enterprise " and " Columbia " , the NX - 03 and NX - 04 would have been named " Challenger " and " Discovery " , respectively . It was not specified whether the NX Project remained active after " Enterprise " and other NX - class vessels were launched . Apocrypha . The Pocket ENT novels " " and " Beneath the Raptor ' s Wing " depict the manufacture of four additional NX - class ships , " Challenger " ( NX - 03 ) , " Discovery " ( NX - 04 ) , " Atlantis " ( NX - 05 ) , and " Endeavour " ( NX - 06 ) , before the program was shut down in favor of the of starship , which could be built faster and cheaper . The Pocket TNG novel " Indistinguishable from Magic " introduced the " Intrepid " ( NX - 07 ) and indicated that approximately fifteen or sixteen ships of the class were made before the line was discontinued .