Does it matter where it was built? The apocrypha suggests Earth orbit space, the reboot suggests land. If a fan film wants it to be in orbit of another world, more power to them.
Where was Kirk's Enterprise built?
- Thread starter gastrof
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I had a dream like that once. There was this huge gorge in the middle of Iowa...
No it doesn't matter. In fact why ask any questions at all? It's not like there's a forum for such questions to be posted.... oh.
In my dream it was a quarry.
Unless the San Francisco Naval Yards are at Axanar, and are named after the original rather than actually being in San Francisco. The dedication plaque says, "San Francisco, Calif.", but unless I'm mistaken that was never visible on screen. The 'SFY Axanar' solution would at least reconcile with April's statement in TAS.
It was indeed visible, but probably hard to read on old TVs:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x13hd/elaanoftroyiushd1233.jpg
Shouldn't the real question be what do we mean by built?
If the story here is that the Enterprise was built during a time of war, then it is quite possible that the major components were manufactured in San Francisco and assembled in the associated orbital dry dock... but that doesn't mean she was ready to be commissioned. If the Enterprise was built by a private contractor, Star Fleet might have taken over the final outfitting and systems integration after the general assembly was completed for security reasons. And that type of thing doesn't need to be associated with San Francisco, Earth or even the Sol system.
Could she have been built in San Francisco? Yes, and that wouldn't necessarily preclude her being made operational somewhere else.
If the story here is that the Enterprise was built during a time of war, then it is quite possible that the major components were manufactured in San Francisco and assembled in the associated orbital dry dock... but that doesn't mean she was ready to be commissioned. If the Enterprise was built by a private contractor, Star Fleet might have taken over the final outfitting and systems integration after the general assembly was completed for security reasons. And that type of thing doesn't need to be associated with San Francisco, Earth or even the Sol system.
Could she have been built in San Francisco? Yes, and that wouldn't necessarily preclude her being made operational somewhere else.
I'm sure it matters to some people. But as long as the stories are good, a shifting construction venue doesn't bother me. I've been making other inconsistencies fit in my head for forty years, this is no different.
Unless you're in geosyncronous orbit, you don't ORBIT above a specific spot. At any rate, for the purposes of practicality, NCC-1701 was probably built at Starbase 1 or some low-earth-orbit spacedock, probably in an equatorial or San-Fransisco-Latitude orbit.
In the new movies, it seems that the Enterprise was being built on the ground at San Fransisco, and the Enterprise in those movies does seem to be able to, despite all reason, fly inside the atmosphere.
But in the much more reasonable original series, I would imagine the Enterprise was built in orbit around the Earth, and that it can not fly very well in planetary atmospheres.
EDIT: As far as proof, there was never any explanation in TOS as to where the NCC-1701 was built exactly. So novels, despite technically not being canon, are the best info we have in-universe.
I agree in ORBIT about San Francisco.
Again, geosyncronous orbits merely increase the energy needed to lift objects up. Orbits mean constant movement, so you don't orbit around any specific spot on the Earth for any ship construction.
It was built in Iowa at the Riverside Shipyards.
Is there a particular reason it couldn't fly in a planet's atmosphere?
It does alright in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday". Any problems were from the time travel, not the ship's capabilities.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNeMNXQBzd8[/yt]
In a society that has control over gravity, there's no reason it couldn't be built or partially built on the ground and then lifted into space via anti-grav technology. There might even be pluses in the form of safety and freedom of movement by building on the ground.
The Lost Years novel "A Flag Full of Stars" has the Enterprise's saucer land on Earth, be refitted there and then fly back into orbit to dock with the engineering hull. This novel was actally cited once by ST'09 writer (and avid Trek reader) Bob Orci over on Trekmovie.com
Refit in the old San Francisco Yard in what is now just Hunter's Point. I remember one of the novels going on about the fly over of Berkley where Decker notes that the local students were actually cheering for Enterprise rather than their usual protesting Starfleet as they usually did.
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