NX Class
| NX-Class | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Affiliation: | Earth Star Fleet |
| Type: | Explorer |
| Active: | 22nd century |
| Length: | 225 meters |
| Beam: | 131.4 meters |
| Height: | 34 meters |
| Mass: | 675,000 metric tons |
| Decks: | 7 Deck Plans |
| Max Impulse: | Type: Two Fairing Impulse Rockets; 2 Paired Standard Plasma Acceleration Rockets Speed: .33 C |
| Armament: | Phasers: 12 Phase Cannons (4F, 2P, 2S, 4A) Torpedoes: 6 Torpedo Launch Tubes (Spatial and Photonic) (4F, 2A) Payload: 176 Photonic Torpedoes, 824 Spatial Torpedoes (Full Capacity) Other: 3 Pulse Plasma Cannons (360-arc ventral) |
| Defenses: | Polarized Hull Plating |
| Tractor/Repulsor: | Dual Grappler Arm |
| Shuttles: | 2 Shuttlepods prepped, 2 shuttlepods disassembled and stored |
| Sensors: | Deployable Subspace Amplifiers; Sensor Probes and Drones |
The NX-class was the first class of starships built with the "warp five engine," thereby enabling Humanity's first steps of exploration beyond its neighboring star systems.
Serving in the Earth Star Fleet, the first ship of the NX-class was Enterprise, commissioned in 2151.
The second ship, the Columbia, NX-02, was commissioned in 2154.
History
The NX-class was the first Earth Star Fleet starship equipped with a Human-built propulsion system able to achieve warp 5. Before finally being commissioned, the ship was conceived of over thirty years at the Warp Five Complex: a research and development site on Earth, where Henry Archer and Zefram Cochrane, among others, worked on the creation of the Warp Five engine.
The first starship of the class built was the Enterprise, NX-01, with three more on the drawing board.
NX-01 Enterprise
Enterprise was launched from drydock in 2151, under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer. The launch occurred three weeks ahead of schedule, due to the need to return a Klingon courier to his homeworld. The early launch was strongly protested by the Vulcans, who believed Humanity was not ready to explore space. A Vulcan Ambassador managed to wrangle a concession from Star Fleet, forcing the placement of T'Pol on Enterprise in exchange for Vulcan star charts.
After the Xindi attack on Earth in 2153, Enterprise was recalled home. Upon arrival, she was refitted and upgraded with new photonic torpedoes, a universal translator update, and a new command center.
She was relaunched on a new mission to the Delphic Expanse to search for the Xindi superweapon.
For another seven years, Enterprise continued to serve Earth Star Fleet before its decommissioning in 2161.
NX-02 Columbia
At the time of the Xindi attack on Earth in 2153, the second NX-class starship, the Columbia, was still under construction. In 2154, the Columbia was launched.
Compared to the class prototype, Enterprise, Columbia's hull polarization was improved by 12%. Furthermore, she possessed ventral and dorsal photonic torpedo launchers as well as pulsed phase cannons.
In November of 2154, the Columbia was stuck in dry dock with engine trouble, delaying her launch, and rendering her unable to assist the Enterprise during the hunt for a Romulan drone-ship.
Late that year, the vessel's engine troubles were fixed upon the transfer of Enterprise engineer Trip Tucker to the Columbia, allowing the vessel to finally be launched.
