The history of the NX-class begins in 2119 with the opening of the Warp 5 Complex by Zephram Cochrane, the inventor of Earth's first warp drive in 2063 and Henry Archer. Cochrane, Archer and other scientists and engineers hoped to create a warp engine capable of reaching Warp 5. Unfortunately, Cochrane would later disappear in 2119 and Archer would die from Clarke's disease in the 2120's. However progress was made and Earth's Starfleet created the NX Project in about 2140, under the supervision of then-Commodore Forrest, to test the various warp engine systems that the Warp 5 Complex designed. During the 2140's, four Starfleet officers test-pilot the ships outfitted with the experimental engine systems. In 2143, two of these pilots, Commander A.G. Johnson and Commander Jonathan Archer would break the Warp 2 barrier; reaching Warp 2.5. Two years later, another pilot named Duvall, would make history by reaching Warp 3.
Beginning in early 2150, Earth's first Warp 5 starship was constructed by Starfleet at the Warp 5 Complex's orbital drydock and completed in early 2151. As construction of the new ship neared completion, Starfleet, through Admiral Forrest, selected Jonathan Archer, now holding the rank of Captain, as the ship's commanding officer. In April 2151 the Warp 5 ship was commissioned by Starfleet as Enterprise, bearing spacecraft number NX-01. On April 12, Enterprise launched three weeks early to conduct the urgent mission of returning a Klingon courier, who had crashed on Earth, to Qo'noS, the Klingon homeworld. Almost immediately after launching, Enterprise and its' crew become pawns in a “temporal cold war” being waged amongst various time-traveling factions and their agents. Amongst these agents were an alien species called the Suliban. Under Archer's command, Enterprise and its crew would successfully return the Klingon courier to his homeworld.
Over the next two years Enterprise and its crew would undertake Earth's first major deep space exploration. In that time, the ship and crew would make first contact with more than two dozen species including the Andorians, the Axanar, the Coridans, the Eska, the Kantare, the Kreetassans, the Malurians, the Paraagans, the Risians, the Romulans (ships only, no visual contact), the Tandarans, and the Vissians. Also during that time, the crew of the Enterprise would calibrate the vessel's spatial torpedoes and build & install the ship's new “phase cannons”. Enterprise achieved its designed velocity of Warp 5 in February 2152. Enterprise's deep space mission was briefly canceled following the deaths of 3,600 Paraagan colonists when the atmosphere of their planet was ignited. It was believed the cause of the disaster was the engines of one of Enterprise's shuttlepods in March 2152. However, further investigation by the crew, with assistance from a time-traveling agent named Daniels, proved that the responsible party was the Suliban. In April of that year, Enterprise came into contact with the Romulan Star Empire after striking a mine in a cloaked minefield laid by the Romulans.
Upon learning the news of a horrific attack on Earth that claimed the lives of seven million humans in late March 2153, Enterprise returned to Earth in the next month. The pilot of the ship that attacked Earth is identified as a member of the Xindi, a species previously unknown to humans, living in a region of space known as the Delphic Expanse. Enterprise undergoes retrofitting in order to locate the Xindi. This retrofit enhances the ship's hull plating, provides new projectile weapons known as photonic torpedoes and a new information/intelligence gathering command center. Following the retrofit, Enterprise departs Earth for the Delphic Expanse and over the next 10 months, Archer and his crew seek out the Xindi to prevent a possible second attack on Earth. The mission is successfully completed however 27 members of Archer's crew are killed and Enterprise is severely damaged during the final days of the mission. Upon their return home in February 2154, Enterprise undergoes repairs in Earth orbit; while the second NX-class starship, already commissioned as Columbia and registered NX-02, is under construction.
Enterprise and its crew would investigate and determine that a Vulcan pacificist group known as the Syrannites were not responsible for the bombing of United Earth Embassy on Vulcan in July 2154 as the Vulcan goverment claimed. They also prevent a Vulcan invasion of Andorian space and Captain Archer with assistance from his Vulcan science officer T'Pol and the Syrannites themselves, locates and retrieves the ancient Vulcan relic, The Kir'Shara, containing the writings of Surak. The discovery topples the Vulcan government and begins the Vulcan Reformation. Later in the year, a fleet of Human, Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite ships led by Enterprise stop the Romulans and their holographic-equipped drone ships from disrupting interstellar shipping and peaceful negotiations amongst the various species.
In 2155, Enterprise and its crew assists in the creation of the Coalition of Planets by preventing the extremist xenophobic group Terra Prime from using the verteron array on Mars to destroy Starfleet Headquarters on Earth while demanding that all non-Humans leave Earth and the Sol system. Its' leader, John Frederick Paxton, and the scientists within Terra Prime created a Human-Vulcan hybrid infant from the DNA of Enterprise officers T'Pol and Charles “Trip” Tucker III, to be used as a pawn in their arguement that Humans collaborating with “Aliens” would lead to the pollution of the Human genome. Unfortuately the infant would die and Paxton would be captured, taken into custody and ultimately imprisoned.
Beginning in 2156, Earth, along with its Andorian, Tellarite, and later Vulcan allies, would become imbroiled in an interstellar war with the Romulan Star Empire. Both Enterprise and Columbia would be extensively involved however, Columbia would disappear with all hands during the conflict. The war would be costly for Earth and its allies but they would be victorious with a peace treaty agreed upon with the Romulan Empire in 2160.
Following the end of the war and the establishment of the “Romulan Neutral Zone”, NX-01 returned to Earth to be decommissioned after ten years of exemplry service to Earth, in 2161. Soon after the decommissioning of Enterprise, Earth and its wartime allies; Andoria, Tellar, Vulcan and Alpha Centauri came together in peace and form the United Federation of Planets.
Ships of the Class
| ENTERPRISE | NX-01 |
| COLUMBIA | NX-02 |