Enterprise launches new ads featuring Kristen Bell, Joel McHale.

The Original Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701) This model of the fictional starship Enterprise was used in filming the weekly hourlong “Star Trek” TV series that aired September 1966 to June 1969.

Throughout the first live action and animated Star Trek television series, Captain James T. Kirk commands the ship and its 430-person crew on an exploration mission from 2264 to 2269.

The Making of Star Trek explains that USS means "United Space Ship" and that "Enterprise is a member of the Starship Class". Licensed texts, on-screen graphics, and dialogue later describe the ship as a Constitution-class vessel.

The disk-shaped hull was also something he toiled over, worried that it would resemble a stereotypical flying saucer shape. However, Roddenberry loved it. He felt that it was enough to pay homage to audiences' pre-existing connotations with space, but would take it into a new direction and still feel new and exciting.

The United Earth Starfleet's Enterprise was an experimental prototype ship, commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer. It appeared as the titular vessel of the prequel television series Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005). A mirror version of the ship, ISS Enterprise (NX-01), appeared in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly."

Captain Rachel Garrett Captain Garrett is the only woman to ever command a version of Star Trek's most famous ship, the USS Enterprise.

The Enterprise was originally named Yorktown, but Roddenberry was fascinated by the aircraft carrier Enterprise and had "always been proud of that ship and wanted to use the name."

The fictional ship grossed 190,000 tons, and measured 947 feet long and 417 feet in diameter. The saucer-shaped hull included 11 decks, and had a crew complement of 430.

Early concepts of the Starship Enterprise by Matt Jefferies. In order to avoid a "flying saucer" look, Jefferies explored using a ball shape for the main section, but the shape eventually flattened out until it became a saucer nonetheless.

The Enterprise was originally named Yorktown, but Roddenberry was fascinated by the aircraft carrier Enterprise and had "always been proud of that ship and wanted to use the name." The NCC-1701 registry stems from NC being one of the international aircraft registration codes assigned to the United States.

While not the first to captain the Enterprise according to canon, Kirk arguably remains the most iconic leader to ever grace the big chair, and it's this iconography that catapulted Star Trek into the zeitgeist of science fiction royalty, now and forever to come.