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The Earth Spacedock was a Federation space station that was in service with Starfleet in the late 23rd century. This massive docking facility was constructed prior to 2285 in a synchronous orbit above Earth. Earth Spacedock was designed to harbor numerous starships inside its upper, mushroom-formed, section.
History
In 2285, the USS Enterprise returned to spacedock after ending Khan's plan to kill Admiral James T. Kirk for revenge. There, the Enterprise was to be decommissioned. Kirk, with the help of Captain Scott, Commander Uhura, Commander Sulu and Commander Chekov, stole the Enterprise to rescue Spock's body from the Genesis Planet. The USS Excelsior attempted to give chase, but had been sabotaged by Captain Scott, and "stalled" when it attempted to jump to transwarp. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
In 2286, an unknown probe disabled the entire starbase when the probe reached Earth orbit. The shutdown happened before any vessels within, including the Excelsior, could be launched, resulting in the shutdown of all vessels inside. When Kirk and his crew had resolved the crisis, he was demoted to captain, but was offered command of the USS Enterprise-A, which was waiting at Earth Spacedock. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
The Enterprise-A remained at spacedock while Captain Scott worked to resolve design flaws made apparent after the ship's maiden voyage. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
USS Enterprise-A departing from Earth Spacedock in 2293
The Enterprise-A was kept at spacedock prior to its ill-fated trip to escort Klingon Chancellor Gorkon to a peace conference on Earth in 2293. Kirk ordered an undocking at impulse speed, despite the fact that regulations specified thrusters only. While Lieutenant Valeris, the ship's helmsman, initially questioned the captain's order, she successfully performed the departure and later admitted she "always wanted to try that."
Following the Khitomer Conference, the Enterprise-A was to return to spacedock to be decommissioned. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
In an alternate timeline, Harry Kim, and Tom Paris stole the runabout USS Yellowstone from spacedock. (VOY: "Non Sequitur")
Personnel
- Earth Spacedock personnel
Appendices
Appearances
Background information
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The Earth Spacedock interior set being prepared for filming during the production of The Search for Spock
Penny Juday and the "mushroom" in storage
Earth Spacedock was designed by David Carson and Nilo Rodis. The model was built at Industrial Light & Magic. It has been suggested, by Mike Okuda among others, that the spacedock facility was over three miles in height, which gives it the ability to house many different starships in its hull. Behind the scenes, it was nicknamed "mushroom". (Penny Juday, TNG Season 2 DVD special feature "Inside Starfleet Archives, Penny Juday, Star Trek Coordinator")
The interior of spacedock was represented by a large set. The original from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was destroyed after the end of filming. The production crew for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home had to rebuild the entire set from scratch.
Footage of Earth Spacedock was reused more than once in Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the USS Enterprise-D superimposed over the motion picture Enterprise.
The enclosure around Drafting Room 5 at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, as seen in "Booby Trap", was also quite similar to the interior of this type of spacedock.
It is probable, though unconfirmed, that this prime universe facility is either identical to, or a part of, the never-mentioned but all-but-mandated-to-exist Starbase 1.
Apocrypha
In an alternate timeline Star Trek: Armada, the Borg either destroy or assimilate spacedock.
In the game Star Trek Online, Spacedock was replaced with another sometime before the year 2409. However, the new Spacedock's design was not popular amongst players, and there were many calls for it to be replaced with the classic design. For STO's first anniversary on February 2, 2011, the developers replaced the new Earth Spacedock with the original facility, explaining it as being the work of Q.
For the month of December in the Star Trek: Ships of the Line (2010) calendar, the Spacedock is shown being constructed as the USS Enterprise's refit is nearing completion.
According to the Star Trek Space Ships (1996) calendar, for the month of April, Earth Spacedock was identified as a Ournal-class Space Station with a registry of NCC-S-1. From this same source, a total number of 12 of these stations were built.[1]
External links
- Template:NCwiki
- Building the Earth Spacedock at Forgotten Trek - a gallery of images showing the spacedock model under construction