USS Eagle The USS " Eagle " ( NCC - 956 ) was a 23rd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . In 2293 , the " Eagle " was assigned a colony resupply mission . The ship was named on a Starship Mission Assignments chart on the bridge . Later that year , the " Eagle " , along with the and the , was selected for the primary operational phase of the abandoned rescue mission code - named " Operation Retrieve " , which would have rescued Captain James Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy from Rura Penthe in 2293 . According to the plans , the " Eagle " was to provide protection on the " Potemkin " s port flank as this ship retrieved the two Starfleet officers . ( ) Appendices . Background information . This starship and registry number were not referenced in dialogue . This vessel appeared in the plans for Operation Retrieve presented by Colonel West . Save for the , the " Eagle " and five other starships were graphically represented by the silhouette of a movie era refit - vessel . Michael Okuda , the creator of the charts , usually endowed " Constitution " - class vessels that had not yet been provided with one canon ically with numbers either derived from Franz Joseph ' s reference book " Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual " ( NCC - 1719 ) or Greg Jein ' s influential " The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship " article ( NCC - 1685 ) , published in the April 1973 issue 27 of the " T - Negative " fanzine . In this case though , Okuda deviated from the norm and used a number originating from neither . Okuda has stated years later , " " In still other cases , the ships and / or numbers did not come from either source , but were consistent with some fleet status charts I did elsewhere on the in " Star Trek VI " . " " Okuda has since then propagated the number throughout his subsequent reference book writings . From this , Okuda ' s listed the ship as a " Constitution " - class vessel . The name of the ship had been considered by producer Robert Justman at the start of second season of for inclusion in the definitive list of fourteen ships belonging to the , still referred to as " " Starship " - class " by them at the time . It was mentioned in the second proposal , but ultimately did not make the cut . His suggestion of 9 August 1967 even made it onto page 64 of the first draft treatment of the script , dated September 30 , 1967 for the second season episode , which contained a line having Lieutenant Uhura state , The reference though , was dropped from the episode as aired . Justman also annotated on his proposal memo , " " I think there would be several other candidates , such as " Saratoga " and perhaps another English carrier , a French carrier , a Russian carrier and certainly a Japanese carrier . " " Had his suggestion made the final cut , then the historical British aircraft carrier would have footed the bill . ( " The Making of Star Trek " , pp . 164 - 165 ) An unseen element from the Operation Retrieve charts included a list of starships , their registries and their commanders . According to this list , the " Eagle " was commanded by K . Garretson . Apocrypha . " " by S . John Ross featured a listing of a " Constitution " - class USS " Eagle " with the registry NCC - 956 listed in the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " and the chart seen the Federation President ' s office in " Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country " . In the Andorian language invented by Ross it was known as the USS " Atlirith " ( an Andorian eagle ) .