We all know our starships. But do we really? Beyond telling your friends the NCC 1701 of course is a Constitution Class ship? What is the Constitution Class? So here’s your short overview over the most important classes and starships of the Federation. Caution: Don’t try to impress a hardcore fan with this knowledge.
So let’s start with the NX-01 (Archer’s Enterprise), which of course belongs to the NX-class and was launched by United Earth Starfleet in 2151. The NX-01 is an Explorer ship, 225 metres in length, 135.8 metres beam and 33.3 metres of height weighing 80.000 metric tons. The NX-01 consists of 7 decks and has a full crew strength of 83 members. The NX-01 has a maximum speed of Warp 5.2, is armed with phase cannons, plasma cannons and torpedo tubes for spatial and photonic torpedos and uses polarized hull platings as defence.
The NCC 1701 (Kirk’s Enterprise) is a Constitution Class Starship of the United Federation of Planets. It is a Class I heavy cruiser, 289 metres in length, weighing nearly 1.000.000 million gross tons. The NCC 1701 consists of 21 decks and was operated by 205 crew members in the 2250s and 430 in 2260s. Now speed is a complicated thing with this ship. The maximum safe speed is Warp 6.0, the official maximum speed is 8.0. The NCC 1701 however can reach Warp 9 at extreme risk, Warp 11 using a Kelvan engine and even Warp 14.1 for a few minutes with complete engine overload. The ship is armed with phaser banks, 6 forward photon torpedo tubes, one aft torpedo launcher and uses deflector shields as defense.
The NCC 1701 D (Picard’s Enterprise) in contrast, is a Galaxy Class ship owned by the United Federation of Planets. It is an Explorer type ship, active from 2350 on. 42 decks are operated by 1000 crew members on average, the maximum crew number being about 3000. Theoretically, a velocity of Warp 9.8 can be achieved with this ship, Warp 9.6 can be held for several hours. Galaxy class ships are heavily armed with 12/14 phaser arrays, 2 torpedo launchers, 250 photon torpedos and anti-matter mines. The NCc 1701 D is defended by deflector shields.
The NCC 74656 (Janeway’s Voyager) is an Intrepid Class ship, active from the 2370s. The Voyager is weighing about 700.000 metric tons and consists of 15 decks. The sustainable travelling speed of the Voyager is Warp 9.975. This ship is heavily armed with phaser arrays, phaser banks, spatial charges and torpedo tubes compatible with photon and quantum torpedos as well as tricobalt devices and is defended with deflector shields.
