Even her dedication plaque says "SPACESHIP NX-01," which hews to the TOS tradition of the dedication plaque not telling you the specific name of the hero ship's class.
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Also indicating she's a spaceship and not a starship, hearkening back to Merrick's distinction between the two in "Bread and Circuses".
Edit: After doing a little digging, the original plaque actually says "Spacecraft Number NX-01", which is a new designation entirely - likely predating the "spaceship" and "starship" distinctions.
Edit: After doing a little digging, the original plaque actually says "Spacecraft Number NX-01", which is a new designation entirely - likely predating the "spaceship" and "starship" distinctions.
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It actually says "Spacecraft number NX-01."
Still. No class mentioned. Which fits perfectly into the TOS design aesthetic.
No argument there.
If anything, the NX Program was probably Earth's first delving into experimental warp engines since Cochrane's first flight. It's not a far stretch to think that the Federation Starfleet co-opted the designation for registries of experimental ships, if not the actual class name. Conversely, we do know that the first warp four ship U.S.S. Franklin NX-326 (which predated the NX-01 but was presumably part of the NX Program) was called an 'NX-class' ship in dialogue but 'Freedom class' on a display. It's possible the 'Freedom class' moniker was given retroactively once the ship became part of the Federation Starfleet.
And the NX-Beta and NX-Delta, the last of which was the first human spacecraft to break the Warp 3 barrier.
So, NX-Alpha, NX-Beta, NX-Delta (warp 3), NX-326 (warp 4) and NX-01 (warp 5)?
Yep. The Franklin was the first full-sized testbed.
And we complain that modern registry numbers only sorta make sense.
Close, but not quite.
Remember Zefram Cochrane broke the FTL barrier and hit Warp Factor 1 = 1c.
NX-Alpha was the first vessel to hit Warp Factor 2 (TOS era Warp Factor formula)
NX-Beta was able to reach Wf 2.5
NX-Delta was able to reach Wf 3.0 (""the NX-Delta, piloted by Duvall, became the first Human spacecraft to break warp 3"), how much further past Wf 3.0 was never stated.
NX-Class was able to reach a Max Speed of Wf 5.2, but spent majority of it's time at Wf 4.5 ("Standard cruising speed was warp 4.5")
I’m not sure how any of that is different from what I posted, other than being more specific about how fast or slow the NX-01 can go.
Actually I think the Defiant's dedication plaque did indeed say "Constitution class."
The Franklin (NX-326) was Freedom class.
(Not to be confused with the other Freedom class.)
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Yes, I mentioned that in my previous post.
When the Earth ship Enterprise was dedicated, the class designation was uncertain?
In Enterprise, yes.
In Discovery the Enterprise's plaque said Starship Class,
for Strange New Worlds
It says "Starship Class: Constitution"
The NX-01 was designated "NX class" from the get-go.
I can't remember the first time the term was actually spoken onscreen (I'm fairly sure the NX-01 didn't have a dedication plaque) but the intent was always there. In this time frame, NX is a class name, just like any other.
In ENT, Earth ship classes had letters, not names (J-, Y- and DY-class freighters, NX-class starships, etc.) - NX hadn't yet become "experimental".
She had a dedication plaque but it was very nondescript and easy to miss as it blended into the slate grey metal bulkheads of the bridge. It was one of the less obviously noticeable dedication plaques in Trek.
Maybe the Franklin was NX-Gamma. And during the romulan war it was brought out of mothballs and given a name, and a class and a short production run. He'll there might have been a a short experimental run of 2-3 ships.
Size comparisons of the NX-Delta(2144), Franklin(circa 2147) and Enterprise NX-01:
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