Enterprise is likely the series I know the least about, did they ever say when Starfleet was created or chartered? The episode Twilight shows that it existed while Archer was still a young man, but how long before that? It would seem to have existed prior to the final assemblage of United Earth, was it always a part of it?
The episode "First Flight" (season 2) was mainly set 10 years before the NX-01 launch and Archer and Trip were in SF uniforms. The command structure appeared to be well established so SF had been around for a while before that.
In "Broken Bow," Tucker said Starfleet hadn't been around for very long. Combined with stuff from "First Flight," I tend to think 2132 was when Starfleet was formed for some reason, go fig...
OK, I just checked Memory Alpha ... Archer told Travis (in "Horizon") that a few years before SF was chartered, he considered becoming a boomer. So, looks like SF was a toddler when Archer joined the service.
We know, from TNG: Attached, that all the nations of Earth finally came together into one world government (United Earth) in the year 2150. That was also the year that the final selection for the captiancy of the NX-01 was made, with Archer being the final choice. We also know, from ENT: First Flight, that Starfleet was around at least as early as 2143. So, it does seem as through Starfleet was part of the United Earth structure even before all the nations were on board. My guess is that Starfleet existed, in some form, from as early as 2119, when the Warp Five Complex was opened. However, given that it took them over thirty years to develop the Warp Five Engine (probably due to Vulcan interference) I'd also say that Starfleet was still was an infant by the time Archer joined up.
The only serious bit of evidence pointing to Starfleet being a 22nd century creation is the "Horizon" one: Perhaps Archer is being truthful and serious here - but even in that case, he might have considered the cargo ship service at the ripe age of four or so, in the 2110s. Alternately, Archer might be taking Travis' incredulous "You, Sir?" personally. If the helmsman didn't believe Archer would have been capable of anything else besides a Starfleet career, perhaps he should be made aware of the built-in insult by giving him a bogus "rationale" for Archer's failure to become a Starfleet officer straight from the crib... Timo Saloniemi
Isn't Earth's Starfleet part of the UESPA? So Its possible that that things like the Warp Five Complex were under UESPA jursidiction until it and possibly other manned space exploration related programs were merged to form Starfleet shortly before Archer joined.
Or UESPA is part of Earth's Starfleet. Or the two are equal partners in whatever joint venture that shield seen in ENT "Demons" symbolized. It's also possible that a Starfleet existed in some form or another long before Archer's Starfleet was founded. After all, the same holds true for Kirk's Starfleet... I wouldn't be at all surprised if the United States had a Starfleet in the 2010s in the Trek universe! Timo Saloniemi
Well said Timo. When Roddenberry created our universe 2010 was very far into the future. Many science fiction movies of the time were set in the 1980s. I surely anticipated that by 2010 I would own a flying car and go on regular vacations on Mars.....
also, hernandez declined marrying archer because she didnt want to become a starfleet widow. and if i remember correctly that was sometime in the 30's. it was in one of the post-series novels if i'm not mistaken.
that is how i see it. that uespa is the far older organization but with the potential of real deep space exploration coming about they created starfleet and some parts of uespa was folded into it.
What I learned from this clip is that IBM 's money lobby stopped flying car development to sell more software. That is wrong, plain and simply wrong.
I always figured the United Earth Space Probe Agency was an executive department with its own Minister that answered to the United Earth Prime Minister, and that the United Earth Starfleet was a branch of UESPA, in the same way that the United States Navy is part of the U.S. Department of the Navy, which has its own Secretary.
Just to add, the MACOs were not a part of 2150's starfleet, they were a separate service, I'm guessing United Earth Military or something like that. Perhaps they are a precursor to Starfleet Marines, which is a part of Starfleet proper. So over the course of a century or two several organizations (UESPA, MACO and UEM, starfleet with a little "s") began coalescing into a single organization called Starfleet.
In the mid 22nd century and later, the United Earth Space Probe Agency might have been a common government bureaucratic subdivision within the United Earth government. So you would have a United Earth (Space Probe) Agency, just like you would a United Earth (Defense) Agency, United Earth (State) Agency or a United Earth (Intelligence) Agency. Archer's Starfleet would have been part of the UESPA, the MACO part of the UEDA, even after the founding of the Federation the UE and the UESPA would have continued to exist. If United Earth initially started in the 21st century as an international organization, not a government (maybe a opposition - counterpart to the Organization of the United Nations) then it could have been in existence long prior to the 2150 date usually given for the UE becoming a state. This would have allowed it to be in a position to launch warp driven probe immediately after Cochrane's first flight in 2063.