<P> USS Enterprise (NCC - 1701) is a starship in the fictional Star Trek universe . It is the main setting of the original Star Trek television series (1966--1969) and several Star Trek films, and it has been depicted in various franchise spinoffs, films, books, products, and fan - created media . The Enterprise and its crew's mission is "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before". </P> <P> The Enterprise was originally going to be named Yorktown . Star Trek art director Matt Jefferies, who was not a science fiction fan, was the primary designer of the Enterprise and based his work on concepts from series creator Gene Roddenberry . Jefferies' experience with aviation led to his designs being imbued with what he called "aircraft logic". Roddenberry did not have any ideas about what the ship should look like, but he provided basic information: the Enterprise would operate mainly in space, have a crew of 100 - 150, and be incredibly fast . Both Jeffries and Roddenberry wanted the Enterprise not to look like any of the rocket ships already used by the aerospace industry or in popular culture; many of Jeffries' designs were rejected as being "too conventional". While Jeffries initially rejected a saucer - shaped component, worried about the similarities to flying saucers, a large spherical component eventually flattened into a saucer . Jeffries imagined the ship's engines would be too powerful to be near the crew, requiring them to be set apart from the hull . During one visit to Jeffries, Roddenberry and NBC staff were drawn to a sketch of the Enterprise resembling its final configuration . Jeffries had created a small model of this design that, when held from a string, hung upside - down--an appearance he had to "unsell". Jeffries kept the hull smooth, with a sense that the ship's components were serviced from inside . </P> <P> The ship's NCC - 1701 registry stems from NC being one of the international aircraft registration codes assigned to the United States . The second C was added because Soviet aircraft used Cs, and Jeffries believed a venture into space would be a joint operation by the United States and Russia . NCC is the Starfleet abbreviation for "Naval Construction Contract", comparable to what the U.S. Navy would call a hull number . Jeffries rejected 3, 6, 8, and 9 as "too easily confused" on screen; he eventually reasoned the Enterprise was the first vessel of Starfleet's 17th starship design, hence 1701 . The Making of Star Trek explains that USS means "United Space Ship" and that "Enterprise is a member of the Starship Class". The ship was changed to Constitution class with the release of Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual in 1975 . </P> <P> The first miniature built from Jeffries' drawings was a four - inch scale model . Next was a model approximately 33 inches (0.8 m) long . Richard C. Datin constructed this model almost entirely of wood . The second miniature built for the original pilot was constructed from plaster, sheet metal and wood . It was 11 feet 3.5 inches (3.4 m) long, weighted 125 kilograms (276 lb), and cost $6,000 . Datin supervised the crew of model makers from Production Model Shop and did detail work on the model . They worked on the model out of Jensen's model shop in Burbank, though the larger base components were subcontracted to a shop with a large lathe . The 11 - foot model was initially filmed by both Howard A. Anderson and Linwood G. Dunn at Dunn's Film Effects of Hollywood facility . Most of the fine details on the shooting model were not visible to television views . Eventually, the three - foot model was modified to match changes made to the larger model before and after shooting of the second pilot, and the three - foot model appears as a prop of a miniaturized Enterprise in "Requiem for Methuselah" (1969). </P>

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