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12 - The Final Frontier(Part 2)
The 21st Century...
What does the future hold for the name Enterprise? At least two sources exist for some interesting speculations.
First, NASA and members of the aerospace industry around the world have devoted years of effort to designing and testing
elements for the next generation of reusable spacecraft. In the United States, these plans have taken the form of an
experimental craft often referred to as the National Aerospace Plane. Unlike the space shuttle, which is a hybrid between
a ballistic missile for launch and a spaceplane like the X-15 for landing, the aerospace plane will provide access
to space through the use of conventional runways.
Assuming the technology can be developed and perfected, the aerospace plane will be powered by ejector scramjet engines.
At slow speeds (below Mach 1), small ejector rockets will force air into the scramjet air intakes, where the airflow will
heat liquid hydrogen injected into the combustion chamber. At hypersonic speeds (up to Mach 20) the natural airflow will
be sufficient to ignite the hydrogen fuel. In the vacuum of space, the ejector rockets will provide thrust in their own
right.
The role of the X-30 will be as a test vehicle for future development of operational aerospace planes. Once
operational, the aerospace planes will be able to make regular flights to the international space station, ferrying
scientists, supplies, and mid-sized cargo into Earth orbit. After each mission, the aerospace planes will use their
scramjet engines to slow down enough to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and will be able to fly to powered landings at
any conventional airport. Unfortunately, other priorities, including completion of construction of the International
Space Station and planning for the new effort (dubbed Project Orion) to return the United States to the Moon and
eventually take humans to Mars, have forestalled development of the aerospace plane. However, there's little doubt
that an operational aerospace plane will someday be built and flown. Wouldn't it be appropriate to name the first
operational aerospace plane Enterprise?
But in the meantime, a private company, Virgin Galactic, announced in 2005 plans to build as many as five air-launched rocket planes to take paying customers on sub-orbital flights into space. Based on the pioneering SpaceShip One, rocket plane designed and built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, the passenger rocket planes of Virgin Galactic will be carried to high altitude by a specially-built carrier plane and then dropped for rocket-powered flight to an altitude of about 85 miles above the Earth. The eight occupants of the rocket plane, two pilots and six passengers, will see the Earth from the edge of space and experience several minutes of weightlessness. The rocket planes will then land on a runway some 100 to 200 miles downrange. These flights into space will be based from a $200 million spaceport being constructed by Virgin Galactic in the desert of New Mexico. In a touching acknowledgement to the space shuttle Enterprise and the fictional starships Enterprise of Star Trek, Virgin Galactic will name the first of its fleet of five rocket planes the VSS [Virgin Space Ship] Enterprise. Virgin Galactic hopes to begin its commercial spaceflight service in 2009, with customers paying about $200,000 for the adventure of a sub-orbital flight into space.
...And Beyond
Projecting even further into the future, one needs only turn to the popular 1960's television series Star Trek79 and its more contemporary spinoffs, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Enterprise, for speculations
about future Enterprises. In this future, a United Federation of Planets is the outer space equivalent of today's
United Nations and, like today's United States Navy, the Federation's Starfleet has a proud heritage of ships named
USS Enterprise. These ships, however, are starships: vessels of unimagined power and speed, which sail the oceans
of space rather than the oceans of Earth. Here then, is a brief history of the future Enterprises, according
to Star Trek.
Early in the 22nd Century, an interstellar propulsion engineer named Zefram Cochrane discovered the principles of warp drive technology, which made faster-than-light space travel possible. The technology was used to power Earth's first "starships."
The first of these starships was the Declaration-class spaceliner Enterprise (XCV-330), which was launched
in 2123 by the United Earth Alliance. The Enterprise was the first spaceliner to be built
specifically for the major United Federation of Planets space lanes, such as Earth to Alpha Centauri. She had a cruising
speed of warp 3 and carried up to 850 passengers and 100 crew.
In 2151, the experimental starship Enterprise (NX-01) became the first deep space vessel of United Earth's newly-created Starfleet. Powered by a warp 5, faster-than-light engine and under command of Captain Jonathan Archer, she was rushed out of orbital drydock on a special diplomatic mission to return a stranded Klingon warrior to the Klingon homeworld of Q'onos. Enroute, the Enterprise encountered members of an alien race called the Suliban, who kidnapped the Klingon for vital information he was carrying. Captain Archer and the rest of the crew successfully rescued the Klingon and delivered him safely to Q'onos. So began the illustrious history of the first interstellar vessel to be named Enterprise. Three years later, Captain Archer and the crew of the Enterprise single-handedly stopped a previously unknown race called the Xindi from destroying Earth with a massive weapon they had constructed in a mysterious area of space called the Delphic Expanse. During her 10-year mission, the Enterprise forged many informal alliances with alien races, which led inevitably to the formation of an interstellar coalition that would become the core for the United Federation of Planets.
The first United Federation of Planets starship Enterprise (NCC-1701) was the most famous vessel in Starfleet history. She was a Constitution-
class starship and was powered by two matter-antimatter warp drive engines, which allowed her to cruise at warp 6.
After she was commissioned in 2245, the Enterprise completed a successful shakedown cruise, with Captain Robert
April in command, and the following year began the first of her 5-year exploratory missions. In 2252, Captain April
turned command of the Enterprise over to Captain Christopher Pike. In 2261, after two exploratory missions under
Captain Pike, the Enterprise underwent a major overhaul, which included upgrading her warp drive engines,
installing the latest state-of-the-art ship computer, and upgrading her phaser and photon torpedo armament.
Command of the Enterprise was turned over to Captain James Kirk in 2264. Among the 430 crew members on board
the ship for this mission was a command crew that would become legendary during the ensuing years. In addition to
Captain Kirk, this command crew included Vulcan First Officer Spock, Chief Medical Officer Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Chief
Engineer Montgomery Scott, Communications Officer Nyota Uhura, Helmsman Hikaru Sulu, and Navigator Pavel Chekov. The
racial and ethnic diversity of this command crew exemplified the Vulcan concept of "IDIC" -- Infinite Diversity in
Infinite Combinations.
Under Captain Kirk's command, the Enterprise had frequent skirmishes with two of the Federation's fiercest rivals,
the Romulans and the Klingons. The Enterprise's first encounter with the Romulans occurred in 2266 and with the
Klingons the following year.
The Enterprise completed her legendary 5-year exploratory mission in 2269. She was immediately placed in Earth-
orbital drydock for major overhaul and refit. When she emerged 2 1/2 years later, she was virtually a new ship. The
refit included streamlining her hull, reconfiguring her internal deck arrangement, installing advanced fourth generation
warp drive engines, upgrading and expanding her medical and recreational facilities, and upgrading her phaser weapons
to the latest warp-powered technology. During the period of her refit, the Enterprise was under the command of
Captain Will Decker.
In 2271, the upgraded starship Enterprise was rushed out of dry dock under command of now-Admiral James Kirk to
confront V'ger, a powerful machine entity that was approaching Earth. In 2276, after completing another 5-year mission
under Admiral Kirk, the ship was assigned as the Starfleet Academy training vessel, under command of Captain Spock.
In 2285, the Enterprise was heavily damaged in combat with the USS Reliant, which had been commandeered
by a genetically-engineered "super-human" named Khan Noonian Singh. Subsequently, the gallant starship was self-
destructed by Admiral Kirk after she was disabled and boarded by Klingons.
In honor of the original starship Enterprise, in 2286, Starfleet decided to begin a tradition of naming the
Starfleet flagships Enterprise and assigning them the registration number NCC-1701, followed by a letter to
identify each succeeding ship. Therefore, after the destruction of the original starship Enterprise, Starfleet
rechristened the starship Yorktown as Enterprise (NCC-1701A). The Yorktown was a later model of
the Constitution-class cruiser and was equipped with more advanced computers, control consoles, and the latest in warp
drive technology. Externally, however, the new Enterprise-A was identical to her famous predecessor after her
refit.
In 2293, the Enterprise-A, still under command of James Kirk, and the starship Excelsior, under command
of Captain Hikaru Sulu, played a major role in the successful completion of a conference between Federation and Klingon
delegations, which was the first step toward a lasting peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
In his final log entry before retiring from active duty aboard the Enterprise-A, Kirk, on behalf of his entire
command crew, noted that:
This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of a new generation. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man ... where no one has gone before.80
The third starship Enterprise (NCC-1701B) was an Excelsior-class vessel comissioned in 2293 under command of
Captain John Harriman. During the Enterprise-B's maiden cruise, she was called into action to try to save two
civilian transport vessels that were trapped in the "Nexus," a energy ribbon that served as a doorway into another
dimension in space and time. Captain James T. Kirk, who was one of the dignitaries aboard the Enterprise-B, was
swept into space and presumed dead when an energy pulse from the "Nexus" ruptured the starship's hull in an engineering
room where Kirk was assisting in the rescue. To date, Starfleet has not released any other details of the
Enterprise-B's service record.
The full service record of the next starship Enterprise (NCC-1701C) has also not yet been fully declassified by
Starfleet. The limited official information that is available confirms that she was an Ambassador-class cruiser
constructed at Earth Station McKinley. Starfleet history records that in 2344, the starship Enterprise-C, with
Captain Rachel Garrett in command, responded to a distress call from the Klingon outpost on Narendra 3, which was being
attacked by the Romulans. The Enterprise-C was ambushed by four Romulan Warbirds and was destroyed. According
to a Starfleet technical publication, "The heroism of Captain Garrett's crew was a crucial step leading to the current
alliance between the Federation and our former enemies, the Klingon Empire."81
The fifth starship Enterprise (NCC-1701D) was a Galaxy-class exploration cruiser commissioned in 2363, under
command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. She was constructed at the Utopia Planetia Dockyard in orbit above Mars and
represented the state of the art in starship design. She was twice the length and had eight times the internal space
of the original starship Enterprise. However, she maintained much of the same symmetry of an engineering section
with twin warp drive nacelles and a large saucer-shaped primary hull. The engineering section could be separated from
the saucer to act as a highly maneuverable superwarp-powered battle module. This arrangement was designed because the
Enterprise-D served as home not only for her crew, but for their families as well. On a typical 15-year mission,
the Enterprise-D carried 1,200 persons. She boasted the very latest in computer, superwarp drive, impulse power,
phaser, and photon torpedo technology. She had a top speed of warp 9.5.
The Enterprise-D departed Earth Spacedock in 2364 to begin her first deep space exploratory mission. Her first
destination was the planet Deneb IV, to inspect the new Farpoint Space Station which was built by the planet's rather
primitive race. Arriving at the planet, the Enterprise-D rendezvoused with the USS Hood, to receive
several additional members of her crew. These included First Officer William Riker, Chief Medical Officer Beverly
Crusher and her son Wesley, and Navigator Geordi LaForge. Already aboard the Enterprise-D were Captain Picard;
Science Officer Data, an android; Ship's Counselor Deanna Troi, a Betazed-human empath; Security Chief Tasha Yar; and
Tactical Officer Worf, a Klingon. While in orbit around Deneb IV, the Enterprise-D also had the honor of
accepting aboard for a VIP inspection Admiral Leonard McCoy (Starfleet Retired), who was Chief Medical Officer of the
first starship Enterprise commanded by Captain Kirk.
Under command of Captain Picard, the Enterprise-D continued to expand the frontier of knowledge about our Galaxy
and the strange beings that inhabit it. In fact, her mission, as stated in Starfleet's orders to Captain Picard,
was:
To expand the body of human knowledge; To provide assistance as required to Earth/Federation colonies, commerce, and travelers; To provide for Earth/Federation security; To seek out new life, new civilizations; To provide further understanding of the universe and humanity's place in it.82
In 2365, the Enterprise-D had its first encounter with the Borg, a race of half-humanoid, half-machine beings
who were utterly relentless in their mission to neutralize and assimilate all living beings. Other alien cultures with
which the Enterprise-D had repeated contacts included the Ferengi Alliance, the Romulan Star Empire, the Klingon
Empire, and the Cardassian Union. The first official Federation contact with the fiercely mercenary Ferengi occurred
in 2364. But the Ferengi were more of a nuisance than an actual threat to the Enterprise-D and the Federation.
On the other hand, the Romulans were and remain among the Federation's most treacherous and devious rivals. The
Cardassians, a ruthlessly militaristic race, were the latest threat to the Federation and the Enterprise-D. By
this time in Federation history, the Klingon Empire was no longer an enemy, a fact exemplified by the promotion of Lt.
Worf as the Enterprise-D's Security Chief after the death of Tasha Yar.
The Enterprise-D met an untimely end in 2371, the result of the same "Nexus" that caused the disappearance of
James Kirk from the Enterprise-B. In his attempts to travel into the "Nexus," an obsessed scientist named Soran
was prepared to sacrifice a planet with millions of inhabitants. In trying to stop Soran, the Enterprise-D became
the target of Soran's accomplices, a band of renegade Klingons, and crashed on another planet in that solar system.
Miraculously, the starship's bridge crew managed to lessen the impact of the crash, thus saving the lives of almost all
of the ship's occupants. With the aid of Captain Kirk, who was found to be alive in the "Nexus," Captain Picard was
able to stop Soran. Unfortunately, Kirk did not survive the effort.
As Captain Picard later suggested to his first
officer, Commander William Riker, the destruction of the Enterprise-D wasn't the end
of the Starfleet legacy of starships named Enterprise. By 2373, Captain Picard and his crew were in
action again, taking the newly-christened Enterprise-E into Earth's past (the year 2063) to stop the Borg from
changing Earth's history in an attempt to conquer and assimilate the human race. By preventing inventor
Zephram Cochrane from making Earth's first flight at warp speed, in his converted Titan II missile the
Pheonix, the Borg hoped to eliminate any chance of first contact between humans and Vulcans. This first contact
was the catalyst that resulted in the rapid technological development of Earth and the eventual formation of the United Federation
of Planets.
In 2379, after an encounter with the So'na a few years earlier, Captain Picard and the Enterprise-E fought one of its most treacherous enemies, a clone of Picard named Shinzon, who had overthrown the Romulan government with the aid of the Reman race and was set on killing all life on Earth as the first part of his plan to also overthrow the Federation. With the timely aid of two Romulan Birds-of-Prey and the ultimate sacrifice of Commander Data, the Enterprise-E defeated Shinzon and opened a door for peaceful relations between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Empire. During the Xindi Crisis of 2153, Captain Jonathan Archer of the United Earth starship Enterprise (NX-01) was carried forward in time to the 26th Century by a future Starfleet operative. During this episode, Captain Archer was transported aboard the Starfleet starship Enterprise (NCC-1701J). Archer was told by the Starfleet operative that the Enterprise-J carried a diverse crew of many formerly unknown species, including the Xindi, and that the Enterprise-J and a fleet of other United Federation of Planet vessels were in a life-and-death was against an inter-temporal species known as the Sphere Builders. Nothing else is know about this remarkable starship's capabilities or operational history.
In addition to Gene Roddenberry's optimistic speculations about mankind's future and the future of the name
Enterprise, the Star Trek universe has also included references to some of the historical vessels named
Enterprise. In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, photographs of the 19th Century schooner, nuclear aircraft
carrier, and space shuttle Enterprise were prominently displayed on the starship's recreation deck. In the
television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, bronzed models of the World War II and nuclear aircraft carriers
Enterprise, along with models of the prior starships, adorned a wall in Captain Picard's conference room. And, in the
film Star Trek: Generations, the crew of the starship Enterprise set sail in a computer-generated
simulation of her 19th Century namesake.
The connection between the real and fictional Enterprises hasn't been limited to the television and film versions
of Star Trek. Author Diane Carey, in her novel Final Frontier83, speculated
that George Kirk, the father of Captain James Kirk, recommended the name Enterprise for the new starship NCC-1701,
citing the proud naval tradition of the name. W.R. Thompson, in the novel Debtor's Planet84, had the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) being destroyed in the last weeks
of the 20th Century during the final battle of the Eugenics Wars, which, according to Star Trek history, resulted
when genetically-engineered superman Khan Noonian Singh tried to conquer Earth's nations. Brad Ferguson, in his novel
A Flag Full of Stars85, made an even more intriguing speculation. Ferguson had
Starfleet, in 2269, install 23rd Century impulse engines in the 20th Century space shuttle Enterprise and fly
the refurbished craft over the Moon's Sea of Tranquility as part of ceremonies commemorating the 300th anniversary of
Apollo 11's first lunar landing. And Carol Greenburg included in Enterprise Logs, a collection of short stories
she compiled, stories based on key events in the lives of ten Enterprise captains, including the captains of the
real life 1776 Continental Navy Enterprise and World War II aircraft carrier Enterprise
(CV-6)86.
It is interesting to also note that life and fiction reversed roles when NASA's prototype space shuttle was christened
Enterprise in honor of the fictional starship of Star Trek. When the shuttle was rolled out of North
American Rockwell's assembly plant on September 17, 1976, the band played the theme song from Star Trek and among
the gathered dignitaries were Gene Roddenberry and the "crew" of the starship Enterprise.
Whether realistic speculation or sheer fantasy, the voyages of these great starships tell of a future beyond the 23rd
Century in which the name Enterprise will still have a proud tradition. But that tradition will be but the
continuation of a legacy that stretches back 700 years to voyages of discovery and adventure, made by brave seamen,
aboard tiny wooden ships powered only by the wind, but carrying the same proud name ... Enterprise.
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| Intro
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| Copyright ©
1996-2008 Arnold E.
van Beverhoudt, Jr.
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