Starfleet

**Starfleet** is the name for the stellar exploration and defense service of the United Federation of Planets. It evolved from the United Earth Starfleet, continuing its name, and absorbing several space agencies' operations into its name. Chartered in 2161, Starfleet began as a nearly all-human service, with no Vulcans officially serving on any human vessel until Spock joined Starfleet in the 23rd century.

## History

In 2161, the five separate space agencies of the founding members of the Federation agreed to operate under the banner of Starfleet. The five separate agencies would share technologies, ship designs, administration and services, and coordinate operations, but would operate mostly separately. The United Earth Space Probe Agency (UESPA) would be responsible for exploration; Vulcan Space Council would concentrate on R&D and Administration; the Andorian Guard would concentrate on defense and border patrol; the Tellar Space Administration would concentrate operational support and supply; and the Alpha Centauri Space Research Council would concentrate on research and exploration. Each agency had its own insignia, worn by their crews, but would share uniforms, presenting a unified front to new species. At this time, however, the Vulcan Space Council carved out an exemption for itself, where Vulcan ships would not operate under Starfleet, and Vulcans would serve only in a civilian capacity for Starfleet, without actually serving under Starfleet, due to their perception of the aggressive nature of the fleet. The easiest 21st century analogy would be franchising. The Starfleet has at this point 16 NX-class ships, now Columbia class; 18 Intrepid class, and a number of other species' ships. In a show of cooperation and good will, Starfleet sent 7 Intrepid-class ships to the Vulcan Space Council, including the Intrepid itself. Serving on these ships, Vulcans made environmental modifications for their unique needs, and allowed Starfleet observers but still maintained a separation of their service from Starfleet itself.

The newly united Starfleet sought to unify their fleets, and offered the Daedelus class vessel, utilizing technology from all five founding members, and featuring an upgraded design, as a way to bring the fleet together. The new Starfleet could build 3 Daedelus class ships in the time it would take to build 1 NX-class. The ship launched in 2163, with the USS Daedelus, NCC-129, having finished retrofit from its original launch in 2142, with another 40 of the old ships being retrofit and in service by 2170. The Daedelus became the workhorse of the fleet, with NCC-129 through NCC-169 serving in various capacities until the ships were retired in 2196.

By 2250, a Vulcan, Spock took the extraordinary step of joining Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy, gaining a commission in 2254, and assignment to the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. His service proved instrumental in a number of other Vulcans joining Starfleet under UESPA, rather than just in the Vulcan Space Council. The Constitution class USS Intrepid (NCC-1631) becomes the first all-Vulcan ship serving under Starfleet in 2262, having served under the Andorian Guard for five years, then moving to UESPA in 2262, gaining an all-Vulcan crew as part of Starfleet's efforts to increase integration of its crews.

## Timeline

### 2161

Starfleet has 186,000 human personnel, along with 124 alien (non-human) civilian personnel working in some capacity either on Earth or on various ships. With the other agencies joining, the combined service has technically 195,866 Vulcans, 155,933 Andorians, 95,361 Tellarites, and 103,455 Alpha Centaurans operating under Starfleet. With a total of 50 ships of varying classes and capabilities, and 736,615 personnel, Starfleet began exploring together for the first time.

## 2196

Starfleet grows to a fleet of 1.2 million individuals; of these, however 89% are human from various planets.