A "Q" for trekies

posted on February 19th, 2008, 10:33 pm

What dose "USS" mean and what Dose NX mean? 

posted on February 19th, 2008, 10:35 pm

United States Ship I think. As for NX, you got me!!! Noisy Xylophone?

posted on February 19th, 2008, 10:38 pm

What states The United States Ship It a federation star ship not a US star ship.

posted on February 19th, 2008, 11:02 pm

What states The United States Ship It a federation star ship not a US star ship.

Actually it stands for United Space Ship.

As far as NX, it's the designation for Test or Prototype ships. Example is the NX-2000, the original Excelsior class.

posted on February 19th, 2008, 11:05 pm

You are the trekies so far congratulations! Thanks PD. 

As far NX that makes cents but why NX and not PT prototype.

posted on February 19th, 2008, 11:33 pm

Yeah the paramount guys took USS and relabelled it. As for NX i've never heard what it stands for exactly, as praetor said it's for prototypes. PT would definitely make more sense, more I think they wanted it to sound cool, and to somehow look like a modification of NCC.

posted on February 20th, 2008, 4:07 am

NX stands for Naval Experiment.

With Navy being used to mean Starfleet.

posted on February 20th, 2008, 4:27 am

Certainly makes sense Rhaz, thanks for the clarification 

posted on February 20th, 2008, 10:07 am

United Space Ship

I though it was United Star Ship (or Starship).

Anyway, the idea of 'NCC' meaning 'Naval Construction Contract' and 'NX' meaning 'Naval eXperiment' are purely fan speculation... As far as the guys at Paramount are concerned (and I believe even Gene Roddenberry took this position), the 'NCC' was just three letters... nothing more... same thing with 'NX'.

posted on February 20th, 2008, 12:43 pm

It's either/or, as it has been referred to United Star Ship or United Space Ship in various show episodes.

At least according to this wiki http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/USS

posted on February 22nd, 2008, 10:28 am

I though it was United Star Ship (or Starship).

Anyway, the idea of 'NCC' meaning 'Naval Construction Contract' and 'NX' meaning 'Naval eXperiment' are purely fan speculation... As far as the guys at Paramount are concerned (and I believe even Gene Roddenberry took this position), the 'NCC' was just three letters... nothing more... same thing with 'NX'.

Well, of course it's fan speculation. If the producers don't care, it always falls to speculation, because if it were real, the Federation wouldn't arbitrarily choose 3 letters like Paramount did. There would be a reason behind it. And the best reason we can speculate is the Naval Construction Contract one.

I seem to remember reading that in TOS, "Starship" is actually a designation for a type of ship. The smaller ones kept their naval terms (frigate, cruiser, etc), but the heavy exploration ships were known as "Starship class". Like how the Galaxy class was known as "Explorers".
But when StarFleet became more pacifistic and wanted every ship to seem like it had an exploratory purpose, 'starship' came to be used for any ship of the fleet.
Again, speculation and rumour, but meh, it works.

posted on February 22nd, 2008, 4:18 pm

Captain Pike introduced himself as captain of the "United Space Ship Enterprise" The plaque on the wall of the bridge of the original Enterprise labeled the ship as being "Starship Class" I don't think Gene called her the Constitution class until sometime in the 70's and then of course the Franz Joseph "Starfleet Technical Manual" labeled all the ships with class names...Constitution Class (Heavy Cruiser) Saladin Class (Destroyer) Hermes Class (Scout) and the Ptolmey Class (Supply Tug) and the Federation Class (Dreadnought) that was never seen on screen ever...LOL. Kirk at one point referred to the ship as the United Star Ship Enterprise sometime in TOS so i dunno...but Naval Construction Contract and Naval eXperiment seem to fit rather nicely...Its all fantasy anyways...sooo

posted on February 22nd, 2008, 4:21 pm

NCC happened to be the designation being used by the Cesna plane that they were using to get the 1701 from, than you just play form there, nearly everything with regards to IKS, USS, NX, NCC, etc. is speculation because no one in the show bothers to explain them.

posted on March 4th, 2008, 6:53 pm

NCC is an imitation of the US Navy's practice to label their vessels according to their type and engine, for example CVN - Carrier Vessel Nuclear or SSBN - Ship Submarine Ballistic Nuclear.

I don't know where I read it anymore, though...

posted on March 4th, 2008, 9:32 pm

When Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was asked this question, he replied that there was no significance to the letters and numbers comprising the registry of the U.S.S. Enterprise. At the time Star Trek first aired, airplanes commonly had "NC" on them, and adding the extra "C" updated the look.

- from STARTREK.COM: Sensor Sweep

Shame really they're isnt something more interesting behind it.