Enterprise or USS Enterprise, often referred to as the Starship Enterprise, is the name of several spacecraft in the Star Trek science fiction franchise.

The Enterprise made for the original Star Trek television series has been called an iconic design, and it influenced subsequent spacecraft in and outside the franchise. Several vessels named Enterprise have been the main setting for various Star Trek spinoff series and films.

[[:File:USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), ENT1231.jpg|thumb|left|Matt Jefferies designed the first of many starships named Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise.]] Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701
Introduction: Star Trek (1966–1969)
Captains: Robert April, Christopher Pike, and James T. Kirk,
Enterprise is the main setting of the original Star Trek series and Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–74).^[1] Matt Jefferies designed the ship, and its core components – a saucer-shaped primary hull, and cylindrical secondary hull, and a pair of outriding engine nacelles – established the core ship design for the franchise.

thumb|left|The same filming model was used to depict two different vessels named Enterprise in the franchise's first six films.

Ships: Refit USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 and USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-A
Introduction: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Captains: James T. Kirk, Willard Decker, and Spock
Jefferies created an updated Enterprise design for the Star Trek: Phase II series. He left the project when Phase II halted and production began on the first Star Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Several artists, including Andrew Probert, contributed to the film redesign. Several aspects of the ship, such as the engine nacelle grills, were influenced by art deco. The ship's significantly different appearance compared to the television show was attributed to an 18-month refit. The ship is heavily damaged in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), and it is destroyed in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Captain Kirk is given command of a new vessel named Enterprise. Despite being a new ship narratively, the producers used the same filming model, redressed to include the new "NCC-1701-A" registry. The vessel appears in next two films, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). The ship is ordered decommissioned at the end of the sixth film, and it appears in a Starfleet Museum in the third season of Star Trek: Picard (2023).

[[:File:Enterprise Forward.jpg|thumb|left|Andrew Probert designed a new Enterprise for a television series that takes place over 70 years after the original Star Trek.]]

Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D
Introduction: Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)
Captains: Jean-Luc Picard, William T. Riker, and Edward Jellico
Andrew Probert designed the Enterprise created for the franchise's return to television, taking place over 70 years after the event in the original series. This Enterprise also appears in the first film featuring the Next Generation cast, Star Trek Generations (1994). The ship's engineering section is destroyed in Generations, but its saucer section crash lands on an alien planet. In the third season of Star Trek: Picard, the saucer section has been attached to a different vessel's engineering hull, and it features prominently in the show's climax before becoming part of the the Fleet Museum.

[[:File:STYestEnterprise.jpg|thumb|left|Producers created a ship meant to bridge the appearance of the Enterprise-D and the Excelsior class for the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise".]] Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-C
Introduction: "Yesterday's Enterprise" (1990) episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Captain: Rachel Garrett
A third-season episode of The Next Generation includes a depiction of the Enterprise-D's predecessor, the Enterprise-C. Rick Sternbach used an illustration created by Andrew Probert as the design basis for the Enterprise-C, executing a final design that could be more easily produced on a television show budget. The Enterprise-C is depicted as being destroyed protecting a Klingon outpost from a Romulan attack, strengthening an alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.^[2]

thumb|left|The opening sequence of Star Trek: Generations was an opportunity to depict the Excelsior-class Enterprise-B. Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-B
Introduction: Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Captain: John Harriman
The opening of Generations depicts the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B, during which James Kirk is lost and presumed dead. The filming model was a modification of the Excelsior created for Star Trek III, with some components added to depict damage to the ship without harming the underlying model.

thumb|left|The destruction of the Enterprise-D in Generations created the opportunity to design a new vessel for the sequel, First Contact. Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-E
Introduction: Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Captains: Jean-Luc Picard and Worf
This vessel is the main setting for the films Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). It also appears in the first-season finale of Star Trek: Prodigy (2022) and the series finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks (2024) The ship is disabled or destroyed when under the command of Worf.

thumb|left|The eponymous Enterprise is depicted in service 100 years before the events in the original Star Trek. Ship: Enterprise, NX-01
Introduction: Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005)
Captain: Jonathan Archer
United Earth Starfleet's Enterprise is the main setting of Star Trek: Enterprise. The vessel is the first Earth-built starship capable of reaching Warp 5. Enterprise was designed by Doug Drexler, and based on the features of the Akira class created by Alex Jeager for Star Trek: First Contact.

[[:File:EnterpriseJ.jpg|thumb|left|As part of the show's Temporal Cold War arc, Captain Archer travels to the 26th century's Enterprise-J in "Azati Prime".]] Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-J
Introduction: "Azati Prime" episode of Star Trek: Enterprise (2004)
Captain: Not identified

A third-season episode of Enterprise involves Captain Archer being transported to the 26th-century Enterprise-J. Doug Drexler drew the first design only two days prior to the production meeting for the episode. The computer-generated model was created in a few hours, and Drexler later said that they would have finished it differently.^[3] He imagined that the vessel was so large that there would be universities and entire parks on board, with the turbolifts replaced by short range transporters. More than one design was created, with the final version created with elements from different designs.^[4]

thumb|left|The new film franchise made the Enterprise larger and more of a "hot rod." Ships: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 and USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-A
Introduction: Star Trek (2009)
Captains: Christopher Pike and James T. Kirk
The main setting for the films Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek Beyond (2016). Enterprise is shown during its construction phase at the Riverside Shipyard in Iowa during the first film. At the end of Star Trek Into Darkness, Enterprise has started its five-year mission. The ship is destroyed in Star Trek Beyond, and a successor Enterprise, with registry NCC-1701-A, is commissioned at the film's conclusion. The new Enterprise was conceived as a "hot rod" while retaining elements from the original Enterprise and Motion Picture refit.

Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701
Introduction: "Will You Take My Hand?" episode of Star Trek: Discovery (2018)
Captain: Christopher Pike
Star Trek: Discovery's first-season finale, and several episodes of the second season, depict the USS Enterprise under the command of Christopher Pike. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–present) focuses on Pike's command of the Enterprise, whose exterior and interiors were slightly modified from their Discovery appearance. John Eaves, Scott Schneider, and William Budge redesigned the Enterprise for its appearance in the streaming series.

[[:File:USS Enterprise F in Star Trek Picard.jpg|left|thumb|Originally designed by a fan for a contest in a Star Trek video game, the Enterprise-F makes a brief appearance in Star Trek: Picard.]] Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-F
Introduction: "Võx" episode of Star Trek: Picard (2023)
Captain: Elizabeth Shelby
This ship appears in penultimate episode Star Trek: Picard (2023) at the Frontier Day festival. The ship was originally designed by Adam Ihle as part of a fan competition for Star Trek Online.

left|thumb|After appearing throughout Picard's third season as the USS Titan, the vessel is renamed USS Enterprise in the series finale. Ship: USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-G
Introduction: "The Last Generation" episode of Star Trek: Picard (2023)
Captain: Seven of Nine
The USS Titan is the main setting for the third season of Star Trek: Picard. In the series finale, that vessel is renamed USS Enterprise. The ship is based on designs by Bill Krause.

Gizmodo's Io9 blog ranked the original design of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) as the best version of the Enterprise, characterizing the original as still superior to 11 later versions of the Enterprise that had appeared in the Star Trek franchise.^[6] By contrast, in 2019, SyFy ranked the refit design of the Enterprise (NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A) as the franchise's best, ranking the original design as only the fourth best version of the starship.^[7]

Time described each iteration of the Enterprise as "a character in its own right".^[8] Over many decades, the starship has influenced real-life activities of NASA and the U.S. Navy:

• In 1976, as the result of a successful letter writing campaign by fans, NASA named the initial flight-test Space Shuttle Enterprise.^[9][10] However, the shuttle itself was never intended to fly in space, to be used only for initial atmospheric flight tests.
• For three days in October 1994, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) hosted half-hour tours for thousands of fans attending a Star Trek convention in Norfolk, Virginia, and Star Trek memorabilia could be found throughout the ship.^[11][12]
• In 2014, NASA named its IXS Enterprise advanced propulsion concept vehicle after the Star Trek vessel.^[13]

Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has spoken highly of the influence and legacy of the original Enterprise on other fictional spaceships. Drawing a parallel to comparing athletes between eras, he said of spaceship design, "What matters is not what they look like now, but what they looked to others at the time that they prevailed... There is only one spaceship that's earlier than [the original Enterprise], and that's the flying saucer from The Day the Earth Stood Still. So, what matters here is, what did [the Enterprise] look like at the time it came out (1966) compared with anything that had been imagined before? And when you consider that, that is the most astonishing machine that has ever graced the screen."^[14] On the ship's influence upon scientists, Tyson wrote, "The Enterprise was the first ever spaceship represented in storytelling that was not designed to go from one place to another; [it was] only designed to explore. It was revolutionary in terms of what we would think space would, and should, be about."^[15]

NetDragon Websoft, a gaming and mobile Internet company in Fuzhou, China, based the architectural design of its headquarters building on the Next Generation-era Enterprise (primarily the Enterprise-E), under an official license from CBS.^[16]

thumb|left|XCV 330 Registry: USS Enterprise (XCV 330)
Class: Declaration
Service: circa 2130s
Captain: Unknown
This USS Enterprise (XCV 330) appears in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) among a series of illustrations depicting ships named Enterprise. It also appears as a model in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), together with models of the Wright Flyer, a V-2 rocket, a Bell X-1, a Vostok-3KA capsule, a Space Shuttle orbiter, and some Star Trek universe starships. A painting of this ship hangs on the wall of Earth's 602 Club in flashbacks that appeared in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "First Flight" (2003).

Non-canon sources give more details: The 1979 Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology describes this "first interstellar liner" as a Declaration-class ship launched in 2123.^[17] Its length is given as 300 metres (980 ft), and it has a capacity of 100 crew and 850 passengers.^[17] The Star Trek Maps by New Eye Photography Editors, also published in 1979, listed this ship as a fusion drive probe that was Earth's first attempt to explore another star system. The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, published in 1980, describes the ship as "the very first starship U.S.S. Enterprise".^[18]

Registry: USS Enterprise
Service: circa 3190
In the 32nd century, as mentioned in the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Stormy Weather", a starship Enterprise noted heated plasma while closing on a subspace rift. No further detail about this ship was provided.

thumb|left|NCC-1701-D refit Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
Class: Galaxy refit
Service: circa 2395
Captain: Admiral William T. Riker
In "All Good Things...", the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise-D was shown in an alternate future where it had not crashed during the events of Star Trek Generations, and instead had been made Admiral William T. Riker's personal flagship. A third warp nacelle allowed the ship to reach at least Warp 13, and the Enterprise-D had also been equipped with a spinal phaser lance, large phaser cannons on the saucer section, and cloaking ability, making it one of the most powerful starships seen in the Star Trek franchise.^[19]

Registry: UEF Enterprise
Class: Constitution
Service: circa 2259
Captain: James T. Kirk
The "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds introduces an alternate timeline where Earth was attacked by Romulans, and the United Federation of Planets subsequently never formed. The UEF Enterprise (United Earth Ship Enterprise) was constructed at the Luna Shipyards on Luna as part of the United Earth Fleet

The Mirror Universe first appeared in the original series as an alternate reality where the militaristic Terran Empire exists in place of the regular universe's United Federation of Planets ("Mirror, Mirror"). A montage in the opening credits of the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" shows the Terran Empire logo in use by at least World War II, with licensed novels putting the divergence before Shakespeare, or even classic Greek literature.

Registry: ISS Enterprise (NX-01)
Class: NX
Service: 2150s
Captains: Maximilian Forrest, Jonathan Archer
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" features a Mirror Universe version of NX-01 Enterprise. This ship is equipped with a cloaking device, deflector shields, a tractor beam, a prototype agony booth, and different exterior markings. It is commanded by Captain Maximilian Forrest, although for a brief time his first officer, Commander Jonathan Archer, takes command following a mutiny. This Enterprise is destroyed by the Tholians.

Registry: ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
Class: Constitution
Service: 2260s
Captains: Christopher Pike, James T. Kirk, Spock
A Mirror Universe Enterprise appears in the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror".^[1] The ship is equipped with an agony booth and the mirror in the captain's quarters conceals Captain Kirk's deadly Tantalus device.^[1] ISS Enterprise was originally the same shooting model as the regular Enterprise.^[1] The remastered version of "Mirror, Mirror" includes a CGI version of Enterprise with "ISS" markings on the hull and minor physical differences from USS Enterprise, such as a larger deflector dish, a taller bridge, and altered nacelle details. The ship was also shown orbiting the planet in the opposite direction (clockwise instead of counter-clockwise).^[20] In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, the ISS Enterprise returns in the episode "Mirrors" where it is found stuck in interdimensional space, having been used by refugees fleeing the mirror universe (after the death of the Terran High Chancellor) who subsequently abandoned ship when it got stuck. The Enterprise is freed by the USS Discovery and sent to Federation Headquarters for storage. The crew of the Discovery learns from Federation databases that most of this Enterprise crew had survived and found new lives in the prime universe.

The captain's yacht is a large auxiliary starship built into the design of several Federation starship designs including the Galaxy-class and Sovereign-class. It was docked to the underside of the saucer section. On USS Enterprise-E, the name of the captain's yacht is the Cousteau. In 2375, the crew of USS Enterprise-E used the Cousteau to travel to the surface of the Ba'ku homeworld, in the film Star Trek: Insurrection.

Designer Andrew Probert came up with the concept of the captain's yacht while designing the USS Enterprise-D. Although it was never seen in use, it is labeled on the master systems display screen in main engineering, docked at the bottom of the saucer section almost directly opposite the main bridge. Probert suggested possible ways for the yacht to be used during the first season, including not showing the yacht but mentioning it in dialogue, but his ideas were rejected. The producers almost used the yacht in the episode "Samaritan Snare", but decided to use an "executive shuttlecraft" due to budgetary constraints.^[21] According to Patrick Stewart, the yacht would have been called the Calypso.^[21] Producer Ronald D. Moore noted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual that real-life naval tradition would insist on calling such a craft the captain's gig, rather than the captain's yacht.^[21]

Rick Sternbach later designed similar craft for USS Voyager and USS Equinox, known as the aeroshuttle and the waverider, respectively. As on the Enterprise-D, however, these vessels were only depicted on technical schematics and never seen in operation or referred to in dialog.

• VSS Enterprise, proposed first commercial spacecraft

• USS Enterprise at Memory Alpha
• ISS Enterprise at Memory Alpha

Enterprise, ISS Category:Star Trek lists