Daedalus class
The Daedalus-class was an early class of Starfleet vessel that, unlike most Federation starship designs, was designed with a spherical primary hull, outwardly similar to the later . This class, which operated with a crew of approximately 229, had a unique subspace distress call among starship classes. ()

History

Operating out of Starbase 12, the , under the command of Captain Bryce Shumar, was lost when it visited the M-class moon of Mab-Bu VI in 2167. ()

In 2367, this class was recorded as being decommissioned by the year 2196. () 

A model of the  was at one time kept in Deep Space 9's classroom, and later in Benjamin Sisko's ready room. (, etc.)

At least two ships of this class were docked at Starbase 25 in the early 2380s. ()

Ships commissioned 
Named
  (NCC-173)
  (NCC-176)

Unnamed
 Unnamed

Appendices

Appearances 
 
  (model in DS9's classroom)
  (model from here on in Sisko's office)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  (etching)

Background information 
The Daedalus class was mentioned but unseen in "Power Play." Gregory Jein constructed a model of the Horizon identified as Daedalus class for the reference work , which Mike Okuda then had reproduced for set dressing in Sisko's office on  starting in "The Nagus" and later used in the .

Reference works have further identified the  and  as Daedalus class starships.

Apocrypha 
In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Millennium  The War of the Prophets, Jake Sisko recalls seeing the Daedalus-class  at the Starfleet Museum.

A Daedalus-class starship named the  is prominently featured in the Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers Foundations trilogy. The Daedalus-class starship on the book's cover is the . The Lovell is also active in the Star Trek: Vanguard novels. The ship – a CGI model constructed by Doug Drexler – is shown outside  on the cover of the second book of the series Summon the Thunder (though Drexler had assigned the registry number NCC-129 to the  on his CGI model).

In Michael Jan Friedman's novel Starfleet: Year One, competition among the early Starfleet's captains for command of the first Daedalus was one of the main plot threads – though the events of this novel have been ignored by later novels, as it was contradicted by .

Star Trek: Legacy was the first Star Trek video game to feature a Daedalus-class starship.

In the Pocket ENT novels The Good That Men Do, , and Beneath the Raptor's Wing, the Daedalus-class is featured heavily as an older ship class refitted with modern technology, and the main replacement of the  fleet. The NX ships were deemed too expensive and taking too long to build, shipyard personnel stated they could churn out three new Daedalus hulls in the same time it would take to build one NX vessel.

According to Issue #100 of the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, the Daedalus-class was a type of explorer. This class was approximately 140 meters in length, had a maximum speed of warp factor 7, and was equipped with phaser emitters and photon torpedo launchers. It was stated further that this class of ship superseded the NX-class starships.

The Star Trek: Ships of the Line (2020) calendar includes a detailed cutaway and mission patch of the USS Daedalus (NCC-129), designed by Matthew Cushman, Karl Tate, and Doug Drexler.

External links 
 
 

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Federation starship classes