When was the NX-01 most likely refitted?

[Yistaan]

We know from its appearance in Picard that the NX-01 was refitted sometime during its 10 year service, meaning the shot of the NX-01 as it appeared during the show in 'These are the Voyages' have to be taken as artistic license utilized for the abrupt series finale and not how the ship "actually" looked in 2161. We also know that the ship was decomissioned in 2161, meaning that it wasn't refit after TATV.

Do we assume the refit happens in 2155 then? What would the in-universe reason for such a refit be? It's fortunate that it happens just before the Romulan War spanning 2156-2160 as I don't see the Enterprise taking time off to refit then.

Do any of the licensed non-canon works (like novels) cover a refit? Is it in the Romulan War book duology? Thanks.

 

[Artoo Atari]

I haven't read much non-canon stuff, so I unfortunately can't make any comments to that.

However, by my own reasoning, I would have to guess it was either in 2155 or during the war. If the war was 2156 to 2160, it wouldn't make much sense to refit it and then mothball it (unless they refitted it to be a training vessel).

Perhaps it took significant damage during the war and was refitted as it was being repaired.

 

[HotRod]

Technically speaking, there’s nothing that actually confirms the NX-01 was ever refitted. There wasn’t a single close-up shot of an NX-class ship in Picard, and it was never specifically identified as the NX-01.

As a big fan of the original NX design (and not much of a fan of the refit), I like to think the real NX-01 was tucked safely away inside the museum, while the refit NX-class we saw on the outside was actually the Endeavour, Atlantis, Challenger, or Discovery.

 

[Yistaan]

Perhaps it took significant damage during the war and was refitted as it was being repaired.

This may be the most likely case

 

[Dukhat]

We know from its appearance in Picard that the NX-01 was refitted sometime during its 10 year service, meaning the shot of the NX-01 as it appeared during the show in 'These are the Voyages' have to be taken as artistic license utilized for the abrupt series finale and not how the ship "actually" looked in 2161.

Why would one assume ‘artistic license’? The intent was that Riker’s holoprogram was historically accurate. There was a display of the ship on the bridge, and it was of the original version. Therefore, the ship looked like it always did by the time it was decommissioned. So according to what we see on screen, the NX-01 must have been refit after it was decommissioned.

We also know that the ship was decomissioned in 2161, meaning that it wasn't refit after TATV.

But the above information shows that is not true. So the real question is, why was a decommissioned ship given a secondary hull? The most logical explanation is that the ship was put in mothballs to be used as a test vessel for new technologies.