Spacedock ( Earth ) The spacedock in a synchronous orbit of Earth , commonly known as Spacedock , was a Federation space station in service with Starfleet in the late 23rd century . History . Spacedock was under construction in 2257 . ( ) In 2285 , the returned to Spacedock after serving as a cadet training vessel on an ill - fated mission in which Khan ' s plan to steal the Genesis Device and kill Admiral James T . Kirk for revenge was thwarted . At Spacedock , the " Enterprise " was to be decommissioned , rather than repaired . Kirk – with the help of Captain Scott as well as Commander s Uhura , Sulu and Chekov – stole the " Enterprise " to rescue Spock ' s body from the . The attempted to give chase , but had been sabotage d by Captain Scott , and " stalled " when it attempted to jump to transwarp just outside the station . ( ) In 2286 , an unknown probe entirely disabled Spacedock upon reaching Earth . The shutdown happened before any vessels within , including the " Excelsior " , could be launched , resulting in the equally powerless vessels being trapped behind the space doors . When Kirk and his crew had resolved the crisis , power was restored as the probe left the planet . Kirk was demoted to captain , and offered command of a starship – namely the , which was docked within Spacedock . ( ) After a brief shakedown cruise , the " Enterprise " - A returned to Spacedock while Captain Scott worked to resolve design flaws made apparent by the ship ' s maiden voyage . ( ) The " Enterprise " - A was kept at Spacedock prior to an ill - fated trip to escort Klingon Chancellor Gorkon to a peace conference on Earth in 2293 . Kirk ordered a departure from the facility at impulse speed , despite the fact that regulations specified thruster s only while inside the structure . Although Lieutenant Valeris ( the ship ' s helmsman ) initially questioned the captain ' s order , she successfully performed the departure and later admitted she had " always wanted to try that . " Following the Khitomer Conference , the " Enterprise " - A was to return to Spacedock to be decommissioned . ( ) " In an alternate timeline , Harry Kim and Tom Paris stole the prototype runabout from Spacedock in 2372 . " ( ) Appendices . Background information . In script sources , this facility is most commonly known simply as " Spacedock " , with an emphasis on the term being capitalized . In one concept sketch that Industrial Light & Magic created for Spacedock , the facility had a registry number of NC - 7011S . ( ) Spacedock was imagined as having a total height of over three miles . At that size , the facility could easily be visible with the naked eye from the surface of Earth . ( text commentary , " " , DVD ) Although windows providing a view of Spacedock ' s interior docking bay appear only in , they were also originally intended to be seen in , with cheering audience members gathered by them . ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 64 ) It was not made clear on - screen whether the facility featured in was intended to be the same spacedock as seen in the films , as the speculates . The only view of the station in the episode is of a set of doors , themselves stock footage of the Dyson sphere doors from . The footage was reused for to portray Starbase 74 . Apocrypha . For the month of December in the calendar , Spacedock is shown being constructed as the USS " Enterprise " s refit is nearing completion . In an alternate timeline depicted in the game " " , the Borg either destroy or assimilate Spacedock . In the game " Star Trek Online " , this spacedock was replaced with another sometime before the year 2409 . However , the new spacedock ' s design was not popular amongst players , and there were many calls for it to be replaced with the classic design . For STO ' s first anniversary on , the developers replaced the new Spacedock with the original facility , explaining it as being the work of Q . Though the external model ( as visible from space ) appeared to be the classic spacedock , the interior area ( which served as a major player hub ) remained based on the original , launch design . With the release of the game ' s Season 9 update , Earth Spacedock received a second revamp to correct the inconsistency , and the interior area received a major redesign to be more appropriate to the scale and presumed layout of Earth spacedock . The change was justified in the story via mission " Surface Tension " , in which the Undine caused severe damage to the station during their attack on Earth , necessitating extensive repairs and relocation of player activities to a different area of the dock .