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Description
Established:
The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was a 23rd century Federation Constitution-class starship operated by Starfleet. In the course of her career, the Enterprise became the most celebrated starship of her time.

In her forty years of service and discovery, through upgrades and at least two refits, she took part in numerous first contacts, military engagements, and time-travels. She achieved her most lasting fame from the five-year mission (2265-2270) under the command of James T. Kirk.

The Enterprise was destroyed over the Genesis Planet in 2285 when Kirk activated the ship's auto-destruct sequence to prevent the Enterprise from falling into the hands of the Klingons. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

In the early to mid-23rd century, at least twelve heavy cruiser-type starships, the Constitution-class, were commissioned by the Federation Starfleet. (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday") The vessel registered NCC-1701, which was constructed in San Francisco, was christened the Enterprise. Larry Marvick was stated to be one of the designers of the Enterprise, (TOS: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?") Dr. Richard Daystrom designed her computer systems, (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer") and Captain Robert April oversaw construction of her components, then commanded her during her trial runs and early missions. Sarah April served as the chief medical officer and designed several tools for the ship's sickbay. (TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident")

Captain Christopher Pike commanded the Enterprise from the early 2250s into the 2260s. His missions included voyages to the Rigel, Vega, and Talos systems. Pike's half-Vulcan science officer, Spock, who served under him for over eleven years, would become the starship's longest-serving officer. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I")

Multiple production sources, including an unseen display screen intended for use in "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II", the Star Trek Encyclopedia, and The Making of Star Trek, give the Enterprise launch date as 2245. Since this date dovetails nicely with Gene Roddenberry's apparent beliefs as well as the conjectural dates of Robert April's captaincy and Larry Marvick's design timeline, fans generally accept it, despite the absence of concrete canonical evidence for it.
According to The Making of Star Trek, the Enterprise was built on Earth but assembled in space. According to a computer display that was created by production staff of Star Trek: Enterprise but never used on screen, Jonathan Archer was present at the launch and died the next day. This information remains non-canon, because it was never photographed on film.
In TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident", it is stated that Sarah April's service on the Enterprise was the first time a medical officer served on a starship equipped with warp drive. However, it is established in Star Trek: Enterprise that warp capable starships had medical personnel prior to the time of her service.

In 2265, the Enterprise was assigned to a five-year mission of deep-space exploration, and command passed to James T. Kirk. The ship's primary goal during this mission was to seek out and contact alien life. Captain Kirk's standing orders also included the investigation of all quasars and quasar-like phenomena.

Beyond her primary mission, the Enterprise defended Federation territories from aggression, aided member worlds in crisis, and provided scientific expeditions and colonies in her patrol area with annual examinations and support. (TOS: "Balance of Terror", "The Man Trap", "The Cloud Minders", "Journey to Babel", "The Galileo Seven", and more)

Despite 2270 being given as the year Kirk's first five-year mission in command of the Enterprise came to an end (in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Q2"), many production resources – including the booklet for the TOS Season 1 DVD set – continue to use the Star Trek Chronology's date of 2264 as the starting point of the mission. It is possible, however, that the mission ran from 2264 through 2269 and that the Enterprise did not return to Earth until 2270.

The Enterprise's first documented refit occurred sometime between 2254 and 2265. Minor changes were made to the ship's exterior (most notably the impulse engines, warp nacelles, running lights, and hull markings). More substantial changes were made to the interior color scheme and layout of the ship.
A second, more extensive refit occurred at some point after her encounter with the "galactic barrier" in 2265. It involved replacing the bridge module, a newer, smaller deflector dish, and refinements to her warp nacelles. The ship's interior was also upgraded. The new bridge module included consoles with triangular and circular resin buttons as well as white-colored rocker flip switches. There was another small refit sometime in early 2266 too. The white-colored rocker flip switches seen on bridge consoles and on various places on the ship were replaced with multi-colored rocker flip switches.
The Enterprise's first documented refit occurred sometime between 2254 and 2265. Minor changes were made to the ship's exterior (most notably the impulse engines, warp nacelles, running lights, and hull markings). More substantial changes were made to the interior color scheme and layout of the ship.

A second, more extensive refit occurred at some point after her encounter with the "galactic barrier" in 2265. It involved replacing the bridge module, a newer, smaller deflector dish, and refinements to her warp nacelles. The ship's interior was also upgraded. The new bridge module included consoles with triangular and circular resin buttons as well as white-colored rocker flip switches. There was another small refit sometime in early 2266 too. The white-colored rocker flip switches seen on bridge consoles and on various places on the ship were replaced with multi-colored rocker flip switches.

In the late 2260s, a new bridge module added a second turbolift, and the design moved toward a completely smooth circular configuration, both standard features on future starships. At the same time the translucent overhead dome was obscured, not to return until the Galaxy-class bridge. (TAS: "Beyond the Farthest Star")

At the end of her five-year mission, the Enterprise returned to Earth in 2270. Following her success, the ship had become a recognized symbol of Starfleet and the Federation. Starfleet's array of unique assignment patches were abandoned for the universal adoption of the Enterprise delta symbol, previously used on the assignment patch for the USS Kelvin. (Star Trek)

The stalwart vessel herself was by then twenty-five years old and returning from a deployment that included an unprecedented number of warp-speed records, hull-pounding battles, and frame-stressing maneuvers.

System upgrades with new technologies after long deployments were far from unusual in her history, but the Enterprise's overhaul of the early 2270s became a nearly keel-up redesign and reconstruction project.

The very heart of the ship was replaced with a radically different vertical warp core assembly, linked to new, and heavier, warp engine nacelles atop swept-back pylons and integrated with the impulse engines. The new drive system allowed for an expanded cargo hold in the secondary hull, linked to the shuttlebay.

Weapons system upgrades included nine dual-phaser banks with power channeled directly from the warp engines. A double photon torpedo/probe launcher was installed atop the secondary hull.

Multiple egress points now included a port-side spacedock hatch, dual ventral space walk bays, four dorsal service hatches, and a standardized docking ring port aft of the bridge on the primary hull; four more docking ring ports, paired on the port and starboard sides of the launcher and secondary hulls respectively, and service hatch airlocks on the port and starboard sides of the hangar bay's main clam-shell doors.

A new bridge module reflected the modern computer systems, operating interfaces, and ergonomics that ran throughout the ship.

Following Kirk's promotion to rear admiral and posting as Chief of Starfleet Operations, his hand-picked successor, Captain Willard Decker oversaw the refit, assisted by Chief engineer Commander Montgomery Scott.

After two-and-a-half years in spacedock for refit, the Enterprise was pressed into service, weeks ahead of schedule, in response to the V'Ger crisis, once again under Kirk's command.

Decker was temporarily demoted to commander and posted as executive officer because of his familiarity with the new design. Incomplete systems had to be serviced during her shakedown cruise en route to V'Ger, including the first test of the new warp engines.

A matter/antimatter intermix malfunction ruptured the warp field and led to the Enterprise's entry into an unstable wormhole. Commander Decker belayed an order from Admiral Kirk to destroy an asteroid in their path, which had been dragged into the ruptured warp field along with them, with phasers. The refitted phasers now channeled power directly from the main engines at a point beyond the dilithium/magnatomic-initiator stage. Because of this, the intermix malfunction, and the antimatter imbalance within the warp nacelles that had resulted, caused automatic cutoff of the phasers, a design change of which Kirk had not been aware. Decker ordered the use of photon torpedoes instead; as a backup, they had been designed to draw power from a separate system in case of a major phaser loss. The timely arrival of Commander Spock brought correction to the intermix problem. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

Once the V'Ger threat was averted, Captain Decker was listed as "missing in action" and the Enterprise remained under Admiral Kirk's command for an interim period. At some point, Kirk passed command on to Captain Spock.

The new designs and components tested and proven aboard the Enterprise influenced a generation of starship design, from the Miranda-class to the Constellation-class, as well as other retro-fitted Constitutions. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

In 2285, the Enterprise was in a low-tempo training cycle, based in the Sol system. Admiral Kirk boarded his old command to observe a cadet training cruise.

Meanwhile, Khan Noonien Singh had escaped from his exile on Ceti Alpha V and hijacked the USS Reliant, leading to his theft of the Genesis Device from the Regula I space station.

The Enterprise was tasked to investigate, and Spock deferred his command to Admiral Kirk. The subsequent engagements with Reliant left the ship badly damaged with cadet and crew deaths, including Captain Spock. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

Upon her return to Earth, Starfleet Commander in Chief Admiral Harry Morrow announced that the starship, now forty years old, would be decommissioned. When Morrow denied Kirk's wish to return to the Mutara sector, Kirk conspired with his senior officers and stole the Enterprise from Earth Spacedock, in order to recover Spock's body from the Genesis Planet; to bring it, and his katra, possessed by Leonard McCoy, to Vulcan. As part of the plan, Kirk had Scott rig up an automation system to run the Enterprise so easily that "a chimpanzee and two trainees" could have handled her.

At her destination Klingon Commander Kruge's Bird of Prey's attack left the Enterprise disabled; Scotty's automation system was not designed for combat and overloaded when the ship was attacked. After setting the auto-destruct sequence, Kirk and his crew abandoned the ship for the surface. Demolition charges in place in the bridge and elsewhere throughout the ship's saucer section exploded, killing the Klingon boarding party. The secondary hull (with what was left of the saucer) fell from orbit and streaked across the planet's atmosphere, to the unknown. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

There is a difference in the appearance of the Enterprise between Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: in Star Trek III; the ship's external appearance appeared to have deteriorated around some areas damaged by Khan's attacks (and repaired in others), while other areas of the ship that had not been damaged by Khan's attack had battle damage, including the starboard secondary hull, both nacelles, and the top of the saucer. This extra damage was explained in non-canon Star Trek literature as having occurred in spars with Klingon warships between the second and third movies. The aggressive move to attack the Enterprise was explained by the secrecy of the Genesis Planet and the overall uneasiness it created. This could also explain the Klingon aggressiveness displayed throughout the third movie.

Source:en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/USS_E…

Personal Observation:
If anyone noticed I rendered the Pilot version because it typified everything we would ever know about Starfleet. I can go on and on of what is Canon, and what is not. All you need to know is it is my favorite starshhip ever (I do mean EVER). In comparison I can even say that the 1966 Batmobile will always be my favorite, because ...that's me. Mind you I don't care iif it's the Pilot version, the series version, or even the refit. At the same point, I wasn't a Trekkie for the ship mind you. It's not my favorite because of weapons, or features...it was just well thought out. It took the doldrums of the 1970's for me to realize this (Thanks to Frans Joseph). It shaped me into following such pursuits as Model Rocketry, it came during a time that man was exploring space during a time of turmoil of war, civil rights, and mutual nuclear destruction. It had the right name as well as the name USS Enterprise can never be appreciated unless you served aboard her in World War II. I was in awe when I saw her refitted in 1979, and cried when she was destroyed, like I lost a dear close friend. As far as I am concerned, other than Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Checkov, Scotty, and Uhura there would not be a Star Trek even after TOS without the USS Enterprise.

Other than that I want to point out the cheif importance of the Constitution class is it was the first Starship that could perform a five year mission without returning for resupply, fueling, or even overhaul.

Constitution Class mesh by

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Description
Established:
The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was a 23rd century Federation Constitution-class starship operated by Starfleet. In the course of her career, the Enterprise became the most celebrated starship of her time.

In her forty years of service and discovery, through upgrades and at least two refits, she took part in numerous first contacts, military engagements, and time-travels. She achieved her most lasting fame from the five-year mission (2265-2270) under the command of James T. Kirk.

The Enterprise was destroyed over the Genesis Planet in 2285 when Kirk activated the ship's auto-destruct sequence to prevent the Enterprise from falling into the hands of the Klingons. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

In the early to mid-23rd century, at least twelve heavy cruiser-type starships, the Constitution-class, were commissioned by the Federation Starfleet. (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday") The vessel registered NCC-1701, which was constructed in San Francisco, was christened the Enterprise. Larry Marvick was stated to be one of the designers of the Enterprise, (TOS: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?") Dr. Richard Daystrom designed her computer systems, (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer") and Captain Robert April oversaw construction of her components, then commanded her during her trial runs and early missions. Sarah April served as the chief medical officer and designed several tools for the ship's sickbay. (TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident")

Captain Christopher Pike commanded the Enterprise from the early 2250s into the 2260s. His missions included voyages to the Rigel, Vega, and Talos systems. Pike's half-Vulcan science officer, Spock, who served under him for over eleven years, would become the starship's longest-serving officer. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I")

Multiple production sources, including an unseen display screen intended for use in "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II", the Star Trek Encyclopedia, and The Making of Star Trek, give the Enterprise launch date as 2245. Since this date dovetails nicely with Gene Roddenberry's apparent beliefs as well as the conjectural dates of Robert April's captaincy and Larry Marvick's design timeline, fans generally accept it, despite the absence of concrete canonical evidence for it.
According to The Making of Star Trek, the Enterprise was built on Earth but assembled in space. According to a computer display that was created by production staff of Star Trek: Enterprise but never used on screen, Jonathan Archer was present at the launch and died the next day. This information remains non-canon, because it was never photographed on film.
In TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident", it is stated that Sarah April's service on the Enterprise was the first time a medical officer served on a starship equipped with warp drive. However, it is established in Star Trek: Enterprise that warp capable starships had medical personnel prior to the time of her service.

In 2265, the Enterprise was assigned to a five-year mission of deep-space exploration, and command passed to James T. Kirk. The ship's primary goal during this mission was to seek out and contact alien life. Captain Kirk's standing orders also included the investigation of all quasars and quasar-like phenomena.

Beyond her primary mission, the Enterprise defended Federation territories from aggression, aided member worlds in crisis, and provided scientific expeditions and colonies in her patrol area with annual examinations and support. (TOS: "Balance of Terror", "The Man Trap", "The Cloud Minders", "Journey to Babel", "The Galileo Seven", and more)

Despite 2270 being given as the year Kirk's first five-year mission in command of the Enterprise came to an end (in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Q2"), many production resources – including the booklet for the TOS Season 1 DVD set – continue to use the Star Trek Chronology's date of 2264 as the starting point of the mission. It is possible, however, that the mission ran from 2264 through 2269 and that the Enterprise did not return to Earth until 2270.

The Enterprise's first documented refit occurred sometime between 2254 and 2265. Minor changes were made to the ship's exterior (most notably the impulse engines, warp nacelles, running lights, and hull markings). More substantial changes were made to the interior color scheme and layout of the ship.
A second, more extensive refit occurred at some point after her encounter with the "galactic barrier" in 2265. It involved replacing the bridge module, a newer, smaller deflector dish, and refinements to her warp nacelles. The ship's interior was also upgraded. The new bridge module included consoles with triangular and circular resin buttons as well as white-colored rocker flip switches. There was another small refit sometime in early 2266 too. The white-colored rocker flip switches seen on bridge consoles and on various places on the ship were replaced with multi-colored rocker flip switches.
The Enterprise's first documented refit occurred sometime between 2254 and 2265. Minor changes were made to the ship's exterior (most notably the impulse engines, warp nacelles, running lights, and hull markings). More substantial changes were made to the interior color scheme and layout of the ship.

A second, more extensive refit occurred at some point after her encounter with the "galactic barrier" in 2265. It involved replacing the bridge module, a newer, smaller deflector dish, and refinements to her warp nacelles. The ship's interior was also upgraded. The new bridge module included consoles with triangular and circular resin buttons as well as white-colored rocker flip switches. There was another small refit sometime in early 2266 too. The white-colored rocker flip switches seen on bridge consoles and on various places on the ship were replaced with multi-colored rocker flip switches.

In the late 2260s, a new bridge module added a second turbolift, and the design moved toward a completely smooth circular configuration, both standard features on future starships. At the same time the translucent overhead dome was obscured, not to return until the Galaxy-class bridge. (TAS: "Beyond the Farthest Star")

At the end of her five-year mission, the Enterprise returned to Earth in 2270. Following her success, the ship had become a recognized symbol of Starfleet and the Federation. Starfleet's array of unique assignment patches were abandoned for the universal adoption of the Enterprise delta symbol, previously used on the assignment patch for the USS Kelvin. (Star Trek)

The stalwart vessel herself was by then twenty-five years old and returning from a deployment that included an unprecedented number of warp-speed records, hull-pounding battles, and frame-stressing maneuvers.

System upgrades with new technologies after long deployments were far from unusual in her history, but the Enterprise's overhaul of the early 2270s became a nearly keel-up redesign and reconstruction project.

The very heart of the ship was replaced with a radically different vertical warp core assembly, linked to new, and heavier, warp engine nacelles atop swept-back pylons and integrated with the impulse engines. The new drive system allowed for an expanded cargo hold in the secondary hull, linked to the shuttlebay.

Weapons system upgrades included nine dual-phaser banks with power channeled directly from the warp engines. A double photon torpedo/probe launcher was installed atop the secondary hull.

Multiple egress points now included a port-side spacedock hatch, dual ventral space walk bays, four dorsal service hatches, and a standardized docking ring port aft of the bridge on the primary hull; four more docking ring ports, paired on the port and starboard sides of the launcher and secondary hulls respectively, and service hatch airlocks on the port and starboard sides of the hangar bay's main clam-shell doors.

A new bridge module reflected the modern computer systems, operating interfaces, and ergonomics that ran throughout the ship.

Following Kirk's promotion to rear admiral and posting as Chief of Starfleet Operations, his hand-picked successor, Captain Willard Decker oversaw the refit, assisted by Chief engineer Commander Montgomery Scott.

After two-and-a-half years in spacedock for refit, the Enterprise was pressed into service, weeks ahead of schedule, in response to the V'Ger crisis, once again under Kirk's command.

Decker was temporarily demoted to commander and posted as executive officer because of his familiarity with the new design. Incomplete systems had to be serviced during her shakedown cruise en route to V'Ger, including the first test of the new warp engines.

A matter/antimatter intermix malfunction ruptured the warp field and led to the Enterprise's entry into an unstable wormhole. Commander Decker belayed an order from Admiral Kirk to destroy an asteroid in their path, which had been dragged into the ruptured warp field along with them, with phasers. The refitted phasers now channeled power directly from the main engines at a point beyond the dilithium/magnatomic-initiator stage. Because of this, the intermix malfunction, and the antimatter imbalance within the warp nacelles that had resulted, caused automatic cutoff of the phasers, a design change of which Kirk had not been aware. Decker ordered the use of photon torpedoes instead; as a backup, they had been designed to draw power from a separate system in case of a major phaser loss. The timely arrival of Commander Spock brought correction to the intermix problem. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

Once the V'Ger threat was averted, Captain Decker was listed as "missing in action" and the Enterprise remained under Admiral Kirk's command for an interim period. At some point, Kirk passed command on to Captain Spock.

The new designs and components tested and proven aboard the Enterprise influenced a generation of starship design, from the Miranda-class to the Constellation-class, as well as other retro-fitted Constitutions. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

In 2285, the Enterprise was in a low-tempo training cycle, based in the Sol system. Admiral Kirk boarded his old command to observe a cadet training cruise.

Meanwhile, Khan Noonien Singh had escaped from his exile on Ceti Alpha V and hijacked the USS Reliant, leading to his theft of the Genesis Device from the Regula I space station.

The Enterprise was tasked to investigate, and Spock deferred his command to Admiral Kirk. The subsequent engagements with Reliant left the ship badly damaged with cadet and crew deaths, including Captain Spock. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

Upon her return to Earth, Starfleet Commander in Chief Admiral Harry Morrow announced that the starship, now forty years old, would be decommissioned. When Morrow denied Kirk's wish to return to the Mutara sector, Kirk conspired with his senior officers and stole the Enterprise from Earth Spacedock, in order to recover Spock's body from the Genesis Planet; to bring it, and his katra, possessed by Leonard McCoy, to Vulcan. As part of the plan, Kirk had Scott rig up an automation system to run the Enterprise so easily that "a chimpanzee and two trainees" could have handled her.

At her destination Klingon Commander Kruge's Bird of Prey's attack left the Enterprise disabled; Scotty's automation system was not designed for combat and overloaded when the ship was attacked. After setting the auto-destruct sequence, Kirk and his crew abandoned the ship for the surface. Demolition charges in place in the bridge and elsewhere throughout the ship's saucer section exploded, killing the Klingon boarding party. The secondary hull (with what was left of the saucer) fell from orbit and streaked across the planet's atmosphere, to the unknown. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

There is a difference in the appearance of the Enterprise between Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: in Star Trek III; the ship's external appearance appeared to have deteriorated around some areas damaged by Khan's attacks (and repaired in others), while other areas of the ship that had not been damaged by Khan's attack had battle damage, including the starboard secondary hull, both nacelles, and the top of the saucer. This extra damage was explained in non-canon Star Trek literature as having occurred in spars with Klingon warships between the second and third movies. The aggressive move to attack the Enterprise was explained by the secrecy of the Genesis Planet and the overall uneasiness it created. This could also explain the Klingon aggressiveness displayed throughout the third movie.

Source:en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/USS_E…

Personal Observation:
If anyone noticed I rendered the Pilot version because it typified everything we would ever know about Starfleet. I can go on and on of what is Canon, and what is not. All you need to know is it is my favorite starshhip ever (I do mean EVER). In comparison I can even say that the 1966 Batmobile will always be my favorite, because ...that's me. Mind you I don't care iif it's the Pilot version, the series version, or even the refit. At the same point, I wasn't a Trekkie for the ship mind you. It's not my favorite because of weapons, or features...it was just well thought out. It took the doldrums of the 1970's for me to realize this (Thanks to Frans Joseph). It shaped me into following such pursuits as Model Rocketry, it came during a time that man was exploring space during a time of turmoil of war, civil rights, and mutual nuclear destruction. It had the right name as well as the name USS Enterprise can never be appreciated unless you served aboard her in World War II. I was in awe when I saw her refitted in 1979, and cried when she was destroyed, like I lost a dear close friend. As far as I am concerned, other than Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Checkov, Scotty, and Uhura there would not be a Star Trek even after TOS without the USS Enterprise.

Other than that I want to point out the cheif importance of the Constitution class is it was the first Starship that could perform a five year mission without returning for resupply, fueling, or even overhaul.

Constitution Class mesh by

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