NCC - 1700 NCC - 1700 was the registry of a 23rd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . ( ; ; ) In 2267 , NCC - 1700 was listed as one of several vessels undergoing repair . Commodore referred to this chart when the arrived at Starbase 11 following an encounter with an ion storm . ( ) Appendices . Background information . This starship has never been named in the " Star Trek " canon . The registry number was first seen in " Court Martial " and was associated with a " Constitution " - class vessel via a schematic in " Datalore " . The named this ship the USS " Constitution " , and stated that it was the class leader of the " Constitution " - class . ( 4th ed , vol . 1 , p . 159 ) Michael Okuda , author of the " Encyclopedia " , based his marrying of the registry to the name by taking his cue from Gregory Jein ' s influential 1973 article , " The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship " . " Star Trek " studio model builder Jein in turn , had made an attempt in the article to " logically " couple the registry numbers as seen in " Court Martial " with the names listed in the 1968 reference book " The Making of Star Trek " , and selected the " Constitution " as the class vessel for a newer " MK IX sub - class " , in order to make sense of the lower registry numbers . The " MK IX " specifier was actually used , but unreadable on a on a computer screen that Scotty was reading , showing a phaser bank diagram for the class in the second season episode of . The name " Constitution " had already been established by the producers at the start of second season of the " Original Series " , when they composed a definitive fourteen ship list belonging to the , then still referred to as " " Starship " - class " by them , including the " Constitution " . D . C . Fontana ' s earlier " ( . . . ) famous fighting ships of the past ( . . . ) " annotation on her first memo proposal , not yet featuring the name , indicated that the producers had the 18th century American warship – one of the commissioned by the United States Navy – in mind when adding the name to the list , making her , like her fictional counterpart , a class sister of the . ( " The Making of Star Trek " , pp . 164 - 165 ) But unlike the fictional , the " Original Series " has afforded no opportunity to actually feature the ship . Diagrams seen on monitors of any " Constitution " - class ship created for the second and third outings of the , depict graphics derived from the " Star Fleet Technical Manual " by Franz Joseph , who incidentally also coupled the registry number to the USS " Constitution " as the likewise MK IX class vessel , of the ship being labeled " NCC - 1700 " . The complete original drawing ( which was otherwise near indiscernible and / or illegible in its on - screen movie appearances ) in the " Star Fleet Technical Manual " bears the label " " Constitution " class " in the accompanying text . Incidentally , it was only in the manual and its companion publication , " Star Trek Blueprints " , both fully licensed and considered " official " by the franchise at the time – which Jein ' s article as a fan publication was not – , that the name " USS " Constitution " " was married to its registry for the first time , that is , officially at least . It is therefore somewhat ironic that Jein ' s article implicitly became official in later years due to its full endorsement by " Encyclopedia " author Mike Okuda , whereas Joseph ' s work has been subsequently been debunked as official by the franchise , relegated to the status of apocrypha . ( ) Subtle differences between the depictions of NCC - 1700 in the Franz Joseph drawings used , and NCC - 1701 in suggests that some minor design differences existed between the two ships . The TOS " Enterprise " had different dimensions than the Franz Joseph " Constitution " , as Joseph ' s drawing had bulkier nacelles and different curves on the saucer and primary hull . Joseph ' s depiction of the " Constitution " also featured external phaser mounts and other technical details the original " Enterprise " model lacked . Apocrypha . This vessel has also been mentioned in several licensed publications . The depictions of the ship vary as those sources were created separately from the filmed version . Other sources have listed additional starships that have borne this name :