Trekipedia

U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701

Perhaps the most famous spacecraft in the history of space exploration, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 was a Constitution class vessel.^[3] Launched in 2245^[13] from the San Francisco Fleet Yards orbiting Earth,^[1] the Enterprise was first commanded by Captain Robert April,^[4] who was later succeeded by his first officer, Christopher Pike, in 2250.^[9] During Pike’s command, the Enterprise had a crew complement of 203, though it was unclear if this figure included Pike himself.^[1] According to Ensign Tyler, the ship’s power was “enough to blast half a continent.”^[1] Superbly equipped for research in deep space, the Enterprise had 14 science labs.^[2] The ship achieved legendary status during the first five-year mission under its third captain, James T. Kirk, from 2265 to 2270.^[5]

The Enterprise was refitted several times during its lifetime, most notably from 2270 to 2272, when the ship was virtually rebuilt from the inside out.^[5] Though commanded by Captain Will Decker during the refit, Kirk—who had been promoted to admiral in 2270—took temporary command of the vessel during the V’ger incident of 2272; Decker was lost during the mission,^[5] and Kirk took command of the Enterprise for another five-year mission.^{[10, 12]} Eventually, Kirk retired^[8] and the ship became a training vessel at Starfleet Academy under Captain Spock.^[6] In 2285, Kirk had returned to duty as commandant of the academy, and took temporary command of the Enterprise while overseeing a cadet cruise when the ship encountered Khan Noonien Singh in the Mutara Sector. Spock was killed saving the ship.^[6] The ship was destroyed some time later by Admiral Kirk just prior to its anticipated decommissioning in order to prevent the it from falling into Klingon hands during a mission to recover the body of Captain Spock.^[7]