USS Enterprise ( NCC - 1701 ) The USS " Enterprise " ( NCC - 1701 ) was a 23rd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . In the course of her career , the " Enterprise " became the most celebrated starship of her time . In her forty years of service and discovery , through upgrades and at least two refit s , she took part in numerous first contact s , military engagements , and time - travel s . She achieved her most lasting fame from a five - year mission ( 2265 - 2270 ) under the command of Captain James T . Kirk . ( ; ; ) The " Enterprise " was destroyed over the in 2285 , when Kirk activated the ship ' s auto - destruct sequence to prevent the " Enterprise " from falling into the hands of the Klingon s . ( ) Early history . In the early to mid - 23rd century , at least twelve heavy cruiser - type starship s , the " Constitution " - class , were commissioned by the Federation Starfleet . ( ) The vessel registered NCC - 1701 , which was constructed in San Francisco , was christened the " Enterprise " . Larry Marvick was stated to be one of the designers of the " Enterprise " , ( ) Dr . Richard Daystrom designed her computer systems , ( ) and Captain Robert April oversaw construction of her components , then commanded her during her trial runs and early missions . Sarah April served as the chief medical officer and designed several tools for the ship ' s sickbay . ( ) Captain Christopher Pike commanded the " Enterprise " from the early 2250s into the 2260s . His missions included voyages to the Rigel , Vega , and Talos systems . Pike ' s half - Vulcan science officer , Spock , who served under him for over eleven years , ultimately became the starship ' s longest - serving officer . ( ) In late 2256 , Michael Burnham encouraged Cadet Tilly to improve her physical conditioning so that she would stand out amongst her peers , and be assigned to the " Enterprise " or one of her sister ships . ( ) In 2257 , Captain Pike on the " Enterprise " sent out a priority 1 distress call that was received by the while en route to . The " Enterprise " rendezvoused with the " Discovery " after they dropped out of warp . ( ) Kirk ' s five - year mission . In 2265 , the " Enterprise " was assigned to a five - year mission of deep - space exploration , and command passed to James T . Kirk . The ship ' s primary goal during this mission was to seek out and contact alien life . Captain Kirk ' s standing orders also included the investigation of all quasar s and quasar - like phenomena . Beyond its primary mission , the " Enterprise " defended Federation territories from aggression , aided member worlds in crisis , and provided scientific expeditions and colonies in her patrol area with annual examinations and support . ( , ) Discoveries . From 2265 to 2270 , the " Enterprise " visited over seventy different worlds and encountered representatives of over sixty different species . More than twenty of those were first contact s with beings previously unknown to the Federation , including stellar neighbors like the First Federation and Gorn , voyagers from the Kelvan Empire in distant Andromeda , and powerful non - corporeal entities like the Thasian s , Trelane , and the Organian s . Two discovered species were the first known examples of silicon - based lifeforms : the Horta and the Excalbian s . ( ) The " Enterprise " was the first Federation vessel to survive an encounter with the galactic barrier . The ship ' s warp drive and other systems , however , were critically damaged and casualties totaled twelve crewmembers and officer s . By stardate 4657 . 5 , the " Enterprise " was traveling through space in a region hundreds of light years further than any Earth starship had explored . ( ) The reality of time travel , externally influenced , had been known for over a century , but following two accidental temporal displacement s , the " Enterprise " became the Federation ' s first deliberately - controlled timeship . Observing the death - throes of Psi 2000 , the crew suffered from polywater intoxication and the " Enterprise " nearly lost orbit after an engine shutdown . A previously untested " cold start " , via controlled matter - antimatter implosion , saved the ship , but the high - speed escape from the planet ' s gravity well caused the ship to travel three day s into the past . ( ) In 2267 , while escaping the gravitational pull of a black star , the " Enterprise " was hurled through space and time to Earth of 1969 . The crew developed and executed a method to return to their own time , by warp ing around the sun ' s gravity well in a slingshot maneuver . A year later , the " Enterprise " was ordered to repeat the recently proven slingshot effect , and returned to Earth ' s past on a mission of historical observation . ( ) Some missions of discovery confronted " Enterprise " with entities and mechanisms that threatened great swaths of Federation and neighboring space . An ancient " planet killer " , fueled by the consumption of planets it destroyed with its antiproton weapon , approached Federation population centers in 2267 . It required the combined efforts of the " Enterprise " and her sister ship , , to destroy it . ( ) One year later , in 2268 , a single - cell organism of colossal scale emitted negative energy , toxic to humanoid life , killing the entire Vulcan crew of the . The " Enterprise " penetrated the interior and destroyed the organism before its imminent cell division threatened to overwhelm the rest of the galaxy . ( ) Battles . The nature of its mission of exploration meant the " Enterprise " was frequently the only Federation military asset in a little - known , otherwise undefended frontier . When called into harm ' s way , the ship regularly did so with little chance of immediate support against previously unknown enemies and threats . Happily , the " Enterprise " s earliest engagement of its five - year mission , against a deceptively powerful starship called the " Fesarius " , ended with an amicable first contact with the First Federation in 2266 . Following the destruction of a colony on Cestus III , a surprise attack – from a previously unknown species – led the " Enterprise " to battle and pursue an evenly matched Gorn starship in 2267 . ( ) The " Enterprise " played fox to the hounds of its four sister starships in a war game exercise on stardate 4729 . 4 . Equipped with the new M - 5 multitronic unit computer and stripped of most of its crew , the " Enterprise " became a killing machine – crippling the and killing its entire crew – before Kirk could re - assert control . ( ) Klingon engagements . Warships of the Imperial Klingon Fleet were frequent opponents of the " Enterprise " . Commander Kor held the " Enterprise " and Kirk in high professional regard , and relished the prospect of battle . Lower rank s chose to mock the starship ; on one such occasion , Korax compared the vessel to a " garbage scow " before he corrected himself , adding , " " It should be hauled away as garbage . " " ( ) While Starfleet rallied its forces at the outbreak of a in 2267 , the " Enterprise " was sent forward to secure a border region anchored by the planet Organia . The vessel destroyed a Klingon attack ship and prepared to engage an approaching Klingon fleet , before the Organian Peace Treaty precluded a full - scale war . ( ) The " Enterprise " sporadically engaged Klingons throughout its voyage . A warship failed in an attempt to blockade the " Enterprise " from Capella IV in 2267 . Sabotage d during a diplomatic mission to the Tellun system in 2268 , the ship successfully fought off the assault of a harassing D7 . The same year , the " Enterprise " was forced to destroy a battle cruiser that Kang had commanded but had recently abandoned , and the rescued Klingons ( influenced by the Beta XII - A entity ) subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of the " Enterprise " from Kirk . ( ) Romulan engagements . The Romulan Star Empire reemerged from a century of isolation to antagonize the Federation with the Neutral Zone Incursion of 2266 . The " Enterprise " responded and was victorious against a new equipped with a cloaking device and plasma torpedo system . ( ) In later encounters , the Romulan fleet used strength of numbers in their efforts to overwhelm the " Enterprise " . When Commodore Stocker took temporary command and violated the Neutral Zone in 2267 , up to ten Bird - of - Prey swarmed and pummeled the starship until Kirk ' s " corbomite " bluff inspired their withdrawal . ( ) In 2268 , the " Enterprise " again violated the Neutral Zone – for the purpose of espionage – and was quickly surrounded by three Romulan D7 class battle cruisers . She escaped by becoming the first Federation vessel to install and successfully utilize a ( stolen ) Romulan cloaking device . ( ) Near Tau Ceti in the following year , Kirk employed the Cochrane deceleration maneuver , allowing the " Enterprise " to defeat Romulan forces . ( ) In the final year of Kirk ' s original mission , the ship was ambushed by a trio of Romulan battle cruisers while on a routine survey . The " Enterprise " managed to escape through an energy field that adversely affected the ship ' s main computer . The malfunctioning systems were corrected by another pass through the field , this time with the Romulan ships in pursuit . The attackers then became incapacitated by the same computer malfunctions , and the " Enterprise " was able to escape . ( ) Casualties . Service aboard the " Enterprise " proved to be hazardous duty . Between 2265 and 2269 , individuals who were killed while assigned to the ship included at least fifty - eight officers and crew – thirteen - point - five percent of the standard complement of 430 . Nine crew members were killed when the " Enterprise " encountered the galactic barrier in 2265 . Gary Mitchell , Lee Kelso , and Elizabeth Dehner later died on Delta Vega . ( ) Two of the seven crewmembers assigned to study Murasaki 312 on the shuttlecraft " " – Latimer and Gaetano – both met an unfortunate end by the hand of a large creature on the planet Taurus II . ( ) In 2267 , " Enterprise " security officers Hendorff , , Mallory , and Marple were killed on the planet Gamma Trianguli VI . ( ) Further incidents with multiple fatalities included four security guards killed by " Nomad " in 2267 as well as five security guard s killed by the dikironium cloud creature on Argus X in 2268 . An outbreak of Rigelian fever , in 2269 , killed three crewmen and imperiled the rest until a source of ryetalyn could be obtained . ( ) As well , two " Enterprise " security officers were beamed out into open space while the ship was under the control of Gorgan . ( ) Lieutenant Galloway was vaporized by Captain Tracey on Omega IV , ( ) but later was somehow resurrected . ( ) Yeoman Thompson was reduced to a dry cuboctahedron solid . She was killed when the Kelvan Rojan crushed the object in his hand . ( ) In the mid - 2270s , Commander Sonak and an " Enterprise " officer were killed in a transporter accident while beaming to the ship . ( ) See also : Redshirt Refits and further service . The " Enterprise " s first documented refit occurred sometime between 2254 and 2265 . Minor changes were made to the ship ' s exterior ( most notably the impulse engines , warp nacelle s , running lights , and hull markings ) . More substantial changes were made to the interior color scheme and layout of the ship . A second , more extensive refit occurred at some point after the craft ' s encounter with the " galactic barrier " in 2265 . This refit involved replacing the bridge module , a newer , smaller deflector dish , and refinements to the warp nacelles . The ship ' s interior was also upgraded . The new bridge module included consoles with triangular and circular resin buttons as well as white - colored rocker flip switches . There was another small refit sometime in early 2266 , too . The white - colored rocker flip switches seen on bridge consoles and on various places on the ship were replaced with multi - colored rocker flip switches . In the late 2260s , a new bridge module added a second turbolift , and the design moved toward a completely smooth circular configuration , both standard features on future starships . At the same time , the translucent overhead dome was obscured , not to return until the " Galaxy " - class bridge . ( ) At the end of its five - year mission , the " Enterprise " returned to Earth in 2270 . Following its success , the ship had become a recognized symbol of Starfleet and the Federation . Starfleet ' s array of unique assignment patch es were abandoned for the universal adoption of the " Enterprise " delta symbol , previously used on the assignment patch for the . ( ) The stalwart vessel itself was by then twenty - five years old and returning from a deployment that included an unprecedented number of warp - speed records , hull - pounding battles , and frame - stressing maneuvers . System upgrades with new technologies after long deployments were far from unusual in the ship ' s history . However , the " Enterprise " s overhaul of the early 2270s became a nearly keel - up redesign and reconstruction project . The very heart of the ship was replaced with a radically different vertical warp core assembly , linked to new , and heavier , warp engine nacelles atop swept - back pylons and integrated with the impulse engines . The new drive system allowed for an expanded cargo hold in the secondary hull , linked to the shuttlebay . Weapons system upgrades included nine dual - phaser banks with power channeled directly from the warp engines . A double photon torpedo / probe launcher was installed atop the secondary hull . Multiple egress points now included a port - side spacedock hatch , dual ventral space walk bays , four dorsal service hatches , and a standardized docking ring port aft of the bridge on the primary hull , four more docking ring ports , paired on the port and starboard sides of the launcher and secondary hulls respectively , and service hatch airlock s on the port and starboard sides of the hangar bay ' s main clam - shell doors . A new bridge module reflected the modern computer systems , operating interfaces , and ergonomics that ran throughout the ship . Following Kirk ' s promotion to rear admiral and posting as Chief of Starfleet Operations , his successor , Captain Will Decker ( whom Kirk himself picked to succeed him ) , oversaw the refit , assisted by chief engineer Commander Montgomery Scott . After 18 months in spacedock for refit , the " Enterprise " was pressed into service , week s ahead of schedule , in response to the " V ' ger " crisis , once again under Kirk ' s command . Decker was temporarily demoted to commander and posted as executive officer because of his familiarity with the new design . Incomplete systems had to be serviced during the vessel ' s shakedown cruise " en route " to " V ' ger " , including the first test of the new warp engines . Shortly after launch , a matter / antimatter intermix malfunction ruptured the warp field and led to the " Enterprise " entering into an unstable wormhole . Commander Decker belayed an order from Admiral Kirk to destroy an asteroid in their path , which had been dragged into the ruptured warp field along with them , with phasers . The refitted phasers now channeled power directly from the main engines at a point beyond the dilithium / magnatomic - initiator stage . Because of this refitted function , the intermix malfunction , and the antimatter imbalance within the warp nacelles that had resulted , caused automatic cutoff of the phasers , a design change of which Kirk had not been aware . Decker ordered the use of photon torpedo es instead ; as a backup , they had been designed to draw power from a separate system in case of a major phaser loss . The timely arrival of Commander Spock brought correction to the intermix problem . ( ) Once the " V ' ger " threat was averted , Captain Decker was listed as " missing in action " and the " Enterprise " remained under Admiral Kirk ' s command for an interim period . At some point , Kirk passed command on to Captain Spock . The new designs and components tested and proven aboard the " Enterprise " influenced a generation of starship design , from the to the , as well as other retro - fitted " Constitution " s . ( ) Final days . In 2285 , the " Enterprise " was in a low - tempo training cycle , based in the Sol system . Admiral Kirk boarded his old command to observe a cadet training cruise . Meanwhile , Khan Noonien Singh had escaped from his exile on Ceti Alpha V and hijacked the , leading to his theft of the Genesis Device from the Regula I space station . The " Enterprise " was tasked to investigate , and Spock deferred his command to Admiral Kirk . Subsequent engagements with " Reliant " left the ship badly damaged with cadet and crew deaths , including Captain Spock . ( ) Upon the " Enterprise " returning to Earth , Starfleet Commander in Chief Admiral Harry Morrow announced that the starship , at that point forty years old , would be decommissioned . When Morrow denied Kirk requesting permission to return to the Mutara sector , Kirk conspired with his senior officer s and stole the " Enterprise " from Earth Spacedock , in order to recover Spock ' s body from the Genesis Planet – to bring it and Spock ' s " katra " , the latter possessed by Leonard McCoy , to . As part of the plan , Kirk had Scott rig up an automation system to run the " Enterprise " so easily that " a chimpanzee and two trainees " could have handled the craft . At the " Enterprise " s destination , the ship was attacked by a Klingon Bird - of - Prey operated by Klingon Commander Kruge , an assault that left the " Enterprise " disabled ; Scotty ' s automation system was not designed for combat and overloaded when the ship was attacked . After setting the auto - destruct sequence , Kirk and his crew abandoned the ship for the surface of the Genesis Planet . Demolition charges in place in the bridge and elsewhere throughout the ship ' s saucer section exploded , killing a Klingon boarding party . The secondary hull ( with what was left of the saucer ) fell from orbit and blazingly streaked across the planet ' s atmosphere . ( ) Crew . Commanding officers . In 2267 , just months apart , two commodore s also temporarily assumed command of the " Enterprise " after the relief of both the captain and first officer . These were : Appendices . Background information . The " Enterprise " and its interiors were designed primarily by Matt Jefferies . A three - foot demonstration model was completed in by the Howard Anderson Company to show to Gene Roddenberry . After getting his approval , an eleven - foot model was then constructed by Richard C . Datin , Jr . , Mel Keys , and Vern Sion at Volmer Jensen ' s model shop , and was finished in . The eleven - foot model was modified for and again for the regular series effect shots . Re - used footage of all three stages of the eleven - foot model ' s appearance are seen mixed together in TOS . In the final draft script of , the " Enterprise " was somewhat poetically described thus ; " " Sleek . . . efficient . . . the look of man in space . . . tooled . . . equipped . . . " " For , the color of the " Enterprise " was limited . D . C . Fontana commented , " " For the purposes of animation you can ' t do the light white , silver kinds of colors . So they made the " Enterprise " gray and it came off all right . " " ( ) Some distinctive effects shots of the " Enterprise " from TOS were recreated in animation for " Star Trek : The Animated Series " . Depicting the ship performing any new , impressive maneuvers would have been too costly for TAS and would have taken the animators too long to show , despite frequent TAS Director Hal Sutherland later implying that a desire to portray the ship doing " barrel rolls and that kind of thing " was quite common . ( ) The refit of the " Enterprise " depicted in the films , , and was designed by Andrew Probert , based on designs for the vessel made by Matt Jefferies for undeveloped television series " " . The design for the movie refit was the basis of a design patent issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office . The " Enterprise " was to have appeared in " " that revealed the design of the ship in TOS was actually a refit ; the original design resembled , though that vessel was created years later . The " Enterprise " was recreated as a new physical model for the DS9 Season 5 episode . The ship ' s interior was represented with sets built on Paramount Stage 11 . ( " Information from Larry Nemecek " ) The CG model of , created for , was relabeled as the " Enterprise " for the final scene of , the last episode of . A new CG model , built from caliper measurements of the original eleven - foot physical model , was created for use in the remaster ed and recreated version of ( for more detailed treatises on the studio model s used , see the appropriate articles : and ) . Visual effects artist Gabriel Koerner created a re - imagined version of the pre - refit " Enterprise " . The design is more contemporary , while keeping the design of the original ship . A video showing the ship from various angles can be seen on YouTube . The model was also featured as the August image for the , as well as in the " Ships of the Line " coffee - table book , placed between TOS and TMP images , which included text from Michael Okuda suggesting it as one of the ideas on how to refit the ship . The " Enterprise " was pictured on three painting s during the " Star Trek " franchise : on a painting in the recreation deck of the refitted vessel in , on a painting in the waiting area of the sickbay aboard the in the fifth season episode , and on a painting on the wall of Kirk ' s kitchen in the Nexus in . Upon preparing to view the bridge of the " Enterprise " in the first draft script of , Montgomery Scott specified , " " Show her the way she was before Stardate 5928 , " " referencing the stardate on which TOS series finale takes place . Consequently , this line of dialogue would have established that the holographic simulation of the " Enterprise " s bridge in " Relics " was definitely contemporaneous with the exact setting of TOS . Scott did not specify that in the final draft of the script , however . The line is also not spoken on screen . The " Enterprise " was to have been referenced in the first draft script of , in connection with its near - destruction at Eminiar VII . However , all mention of the vessel was eliminated from the episode by the time the final draft of the script was written . A new CGI model was created for the appearance of the USS " Enterprise " in the Season 1 finale of , . This model updates the appearance of the USS " Enterprise " to better match the style of Starfleet ships seen in the show , most noticeably changing the warp nacelles to have visible , glowing blue cutouts on the inner surface . The impulse engine is also different and the nacelle pylons are swept back with openings in their centers similar to the refit configuration . The new model also has a longer " runway " before the shuttlebay doors . Right up until " Star Trek : Discovery " , the classic TOS " Constitution " - class model , as it was traditionally depicted during the mid - 23rd century of the prime reality , was consistently maintained in later " Star Trek " shows and movies , most notably in the episode and the episodes , , and .