Discoverse Future Federation Ship Classes

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1. The Athena appears in all episodes of Starfleet Academy.
2. We can see the saucer act as a self-contained starship in "Vox in Excelso", "300th Night" and "Rubincon".
3. The ship was designed by concept artist Lee Fitzgerald.
4. The Academy is located in the real location of Horseshoe Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge next to it as a very definite size reference. Horseshoe Bay itself is merely 300 meters across. The campus is mostly located north of the little bay and has an overall diameter of some 500 meters. The upper limit for the width of the USS Athena is about 300 meters with this reference, leaving merely some 150 meters for the saucer alone. See also Locating Starfleet Buildings in San Francisco. The ship is clearly meant to be larger than the location would allow. It is scaled up considerably when in space, relative to the other 32nd century Discoverse designs, which are customarily huge. In "Come, Let's Away", for example, the Athena appears to be wider than the new Intrepid is long (450 meters).
5. The dedication plaque explicitly reads "Academy class", although the Athena was purpose-built and is almost definitely the only ship of her class. The dedication plaque also erroneously gives the registry as "NCC-325301", which is overruled by the clearly visible hull number.

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1. We can see two of these ships explode in the flashback of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth". One remaining vessel (the "flying rainforest" according to Tilly) appears prominently at the Federation Headquarters since DIS: "Die Trying" and is initially so dominant that we might think it *is* the Headquarters.
2. This ship type doesn't appear in SFA season 1.
3. The Angelou class was designed by Ryan Dening.
4. The surviving ship is purportedly the USS Maathai NCC-325023 (named for Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai) according to officially released production artwork from CBS, although it has not been identified on screen. The class is presumably named for poet Maya Angelou (1928-2014).

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1. The Antares appears as Captain Rayner's ship in DIS: "Red Directive" and can be briefly seen in "Under the Twin Moons".
2. The Antares type, like almost every other 32nd century Starfleet design, also shows up in SFA: "Rubincon".
3. The design is a simple kitbash using the saucer of the Friendship class and the four nacelles of the Merian class. If the components are correctly scaled, the Antares is about 750m long (depending on the positions of the nacelles, of course).

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1. We see the first new Constitution-class vessel as debris in DIS: "That Hope Is You, Part 1", near the planet Hima as well as through Aditya Sahil's window on the relay station. Several of the ships are visible in the flashback to the moment of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth".
2. Surviving or newly built starships of the class appear repeatedly since DIS: "Die Trying". One new Constitution prominently appears on the viewscreen in "Die Trying", with an appended "-M". This is the USS Excalibur as announced by Eaglemoss for the Official Starships Collection. The ventral side of the USS Armstrong can be seen a bit later in the same episode. The USS Noble can be identified in "That Hope Is You, Part 2". The class appears in season 3 as well, but less prominently now. We can see one ship investigating the DMA in "The Examples".
3. The new Constitution, like most other 32nd century ship classes, was designed by Ryan Dening.
4. In "Scavengers", a graphic of the Armstrong is visible on a holographic display. If we squint really hard, we can make out "Constitution class" written under the name of the ship. So we have canon evidence that the Starfleet of the far future would reuse class names.
5. Owosekun identifies the vessel on screen in "Die Trying" as "a new Constitution", although that ship is not named "USS Constitution" and although the screens on the bridge list every 32nd century ship as "vessel unidentified". How does she come to the unlikely conclusion it is the Constitution class by just looking at it? Just because the ship roughly resembles a classic Constitution class, and in defiance of naval naming tradition?
6. Owosekun speculates that the new Constitution could support a crew of 2000.
7. The ship class is visible in season 5 too, most notably in "Erigah".
8. A ship of the new Constitution class takes part in "battle" against the Klingons in SFA: "Vox in Excelso". This one has been identified as the USS Capricorn.

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1. Some of these vessels can be seen in the flashback to the moment of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth". Several surviving or newly built ships of the type appear since DIS: "Die Trying". We can clearly identify the USS Song and its registry in "There Is a Tide..." and "That Hope Is You, Part 2". Ships of this type appear infrequently in season 4, such as the one that investigates the DMA in "The Examples".
2. The Courage class also appears in SFA: "Rubincon".
3. The Courage, like most other 32nd century ship classes, was designed by Ryan Dening.
4. The USS Jubayr NCC-325068 and the class name first showed up in officially released concept artwork by CBS.

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1. The USS Credence is the only ship of the class to appear in Discovery. We see it at the beginning of DIS: "Choose to Live" when it is raided by the Qowat Milat, who kill the first officer and steal a supply of dilithium. We can also see the USS Credence in DIS: "Erigah". Here, the ship appears behind a new Constitution class, which is somewhat shorter.
2. A ship of the Credence type takes part in "battle" against the Klingons in SFA: "Vox in Excelso". This one has been identified as the USS Crimson.
3. According to Lee Fitzgerald, the design was originally created by Scott Schneider for an earlier era, and he updated it for the 32nd century. The model seems to have retained its too low registry.

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1. The detached warp nacelles are said to "improve maneuverability" for a "more efficient flight". But giving up physical connections between parts of the ship comes at a price. The forcefields to keep the programmable matter in place expend valuable energy for something that duranium would provide for free. That doesn't sound very efficient.
2. The detached nacelles are completely new and don't seem to retain anything of the 23rd century technology. In addition, there are now gaps in the nacelle pylons. Also, four struts that used to connect the inner section of the saucer to the outer ring are missing now. The formerly round deflector was given hexagonal contours. There are many smaller changes to the hull, which is essentially where it used to be but seems to have received a new plating.
3. After the refit, the Discovery doesn't have rollercoaster tracks for the turbolifts any longer. They are now free-floating inside the ship. The turbolift ride through the huge empty interior, as seen in "That Hope Is You, Part 2", amounts to several kilometers! It is obvious we have to ignore this insanity.
4. Although it is essentially the same ship and not a new one named in honor of the old Discovery, the registry was switched to NCC-1031-A. We may muse that this was done to insinuate it is actually a new ship, and to conceal the time travel.
5. After a few mentions in the series, we can see the USS Discovery NCC-1031-A through a window at the end of SFA: "Rubincon".
6. It is very mysterious why the ship is returned to its 23rd century configuration in the epilogue to DIS: "Life, Itself". Of course, this is to explain why the ship looked like that in SHO: "Calypso". But it doesn't make sense otherwise. It also isn't clear whether the ship would be found by Craft still 1000 years later (in the 43rd century!) or rather a few decades later (1000 years after the 23rd century). Both interpretations are possible, with the latter being a bit more plausible (and corresponding with the original intention in "Calypso" what these 1000 years refer to). More about that issue in Time Travel in Star Trek: Discovery.

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1. Two of these vessels can be seen in the flashback to the moment of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth". Surviving or newly built ships of the type repeatedly appear at the Federation Headquarters in Discovery.
2. We can also see these ships in SFA: "Rubincon".
3. The ship type was designed by William Budge.
4. The name USS Dresselhaus is from an Eaglemoss announcement. One ship can be seen flying by pretty close in DIS: "Die Trying". We can read the registry NCC-325019. The name USS Dresselhaus can be inferred from its length.

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1. We can spot a few of these ships when they explode in the flashback of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth". There are several ships of this class still in service after the Burn. The USS Nog NCC-325070 can be clearly identified in DIS: "Die Trying". The USS Hansando can be recognized in "Scavengers". The USS Cuyahoga is mentioned but not shown in "Die Trying", "Scavengers" and "Choose to Live". More ships can be seen in "That Hope Is You, Part 2", "All In" and "Coming Home", for example.
2. The Eisenberg, like most other 32nd century ship classes, was designed by Ryan Dening, together with Lee Fitzgerald.
3. The ship belongs to the Eisenberg class (in honor of Aron Eisenberg, 1969-2019) according to officially released concept artwork by CBS. The existence of the Eisenberg class is verbally confirmed in DIS:" All In".
4. A ship of the Eisenberg class takes part in "battle" against the Klingons in SFA: "Vox in Excelso". This one has been identified as the USS Horizon. The Eisenberg class also appears in SFA: "Kids These Days" and "Rubincon".
5. The registry of the USS Hansando is given as NCC-325002 in Starfleet Ships: 2294 to the Future, which is probably a typo.

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1. Some of these vessels can be seen in the flashback to the moment of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth". Several surviving or newly built ships of the type appear since DIS: "Die Trying". We can see them particularly well in "That Hope Is You, Part 2", "Kobayashi Maru" and "All In".
2. A ship of the Friendship class takes part in "battle" against the Klingons in SFA: "Vox in Excelso". This one has been identified as the USS Lexington. The Friendship class also appears in SFA: "Rubincon".
3. The Friendship class was designed by concept designer Daniel J. Burns.

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1. We can see two of these ships explode in the flashback of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth", but they are very far in the background (or quite small relative to the rest of the fleet). One remaining vessel appears repeatedly at the Federation Headquarters since DIS: "Die Trying". It is clearly identified as USS Voyager NCC-74656-J.
2. The new Intrepid, like most other 32nd century ship classes, was designed by Ryan Dening.
3. In "Scavengers", we can see that the ship belongs to the Intrepid class. Although this is ignorant of the significance of a ship class and although it is a total homage overkill (besides the ship's shape and the "-J" registry), it is canon information that we have to accept.
4. One ship prominently appears in the newly constructed Archer spacedock in DIS: "Kobayashi Maru". This is obviously meant to be the USS Voyager that according to Rillak is a testbed for the new pathway drive.
5. The USS Sargasso gets disabled or destroyed by the Venari Ral in SFA: "Come, Let's Away". We can see the ship class also in SFA: "Rubincon".

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1. Ships of the Mars class appear repeatedly since DIS: "Die Trying", most notably when Nhan spots the ship on screen and muses that it must be a scout. We can also see one ship of the class in the Archer spacedock in "Kobayashi Maru".
2. The Mars class also appears in SFA: "Kids These Days" and "Rubincon".
3. The Mars, like most other 32nd century ship classes, was designed by Ryan Dening, together with Frank Yang.
4. The USS Le Guin is mentioned in dialogue in "Scavengers". The ship's registry is NCC-325060 on the concept artwork by CBS, but Eaglemoss assigns this number to the USS Liu Cixin.

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1. Some of these vessels can be seen in the flashback to the moment of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth". Surviving or newly built ships appear repeatedly since DIS: "Die Trying". Ships of the class can be seen particularly well in "Kobayashi Maru", "Stormy Weather", "All In" and "Coming Home". But we can never recognize a name or registry in seasons 3 and 4.

2. The Mitchell is mentioned in DIS: "Rubicon" and can be identified as Merian class in "Coming Home". It is also present in "Erigah". In "Lagrange Point", we learn that the ship has been equipped with the pathway drive.
3. The USS Locherer can be seen very well in DIS: "Jinaal" and appears prominently in DIS: "Erigah" when it captures the warp pod of La'ak and Moll. The ship is named in honor of cinematographer J.P. Locherer, who died in 2022.
4. A ship of the Merian class takes part in "battle" against the Klingons in SFA: "Vox in Excelso". This one has been identified as the USS Riker. The Merian class also appears in SFA: "Rubincon".
5. The Merian, like most other 32nd century ship classes, was designed by Ryan Dening, together with Tracy Genereux.
6. The name USS Curie is from an Eaglemoss announcement.
7. Starfleet Ships: 2294 to the Future erroneously lists two more ships of the Merian class, the Le Guin and the Zheng He, which actually belong to the Mars class.

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1. The Miyazaki's singularity drive suffered a catastrophic malfunction of its singularity drive that killed the whole crew in 3069. The abandoned ship now serves as a training ground for cadets of the War College and Starfleet Academy, as seen in SFA: "Come, Let's Away".
2. The time the ship was abandoned is repeatedly mentioned in dialogue and written on displays. The registry is NCC-316608, but the Miyazaki doesn't look like a 31st century design at all. Its exterior (hull structure and hull details) is 23rd century all over, stylistically the very same as Pike's reboot Constitution class. It is extremely unlikely that Starfleet would use an over 800-year-old ship to test a new drive and just assign a new registry to it, so we are obviously expected to believe that the ship was built according to 800-year-old plans and design principles. What's more, B'Avi's comic book shows the crew of the ship in 23rd century uniforms. This is so extremely odd, if not blatantly wrong, that I wonder whether the Miyazaki was supposed to be that old in a previous revision of the story, to justify the use of SNW sets. It's either that, or plain ignorance.
3. We can see on a screen that the Miyazaki is a Constitution-class ship. That's right, yet another Constitution class!

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1. Some of these vessels can be seen in the flashback to the moment of the Burn in DIS: "People of Earth". At least three individual surviving or new ships of this type appear repeatedly since DIS: "Die Trying". We can see them in the third season too, for instance in "Kobayashi Maru", "Anomaly", "The Examples" or "Coming Home". We can never make out a name or a registry though.
2. The Saturn class also appears in SFA: "Kids These Days" and "Rubincon".
3. The USS Annan (probably named for Kofi Annan, 1938-2018) and the class name are from officially released concept artwork by CBS. For some reason, Starfleet Ships: 2294 to the Future states "class unknown".

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1. The Tikhov appears in DIS: "Die Trying". There is a blatant scaling error because the ship looks tiny, just some 10 meters long, when caught in the tractor beam of the Discovery.
2. The registry USS Tikhov NCC-1067-M appears on a screen. Owing to this registry and to the technology of the Tikhov, this obviously isn't the very ship that Michael Burnham knowns from the 23rd century (although Vance makes it sound like that).

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1. While traveling through the courier network on their way back to Federation Headquarters in DIS: "There is a Tide...", Book and Burnham barely manage to morph their ship around a Wanderer-class wreck that is blocking the corridor.
2. The wreck is represented by a modified CGI of a Shepard-class ship from Discovery's 23rd century.
3. In FASA games, the Wanderer is an Orion ship type (that appeared on a couple of early TNG displays but was never identified). In canon, there is no reason to assume an Orion connection.

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1. The Discovery gets surrounded by these ships in DIS: "People of Earth".
2. After not appearing in later Discovery seasons, we can see this design again in Earth's orbit in SFA: "Kids These Days".

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1. Shuttles of this type were already present but barely discernible in the shuttlebay at Federation Headquarters after Rillak's speech in DIS: "Kobayashi Maru". UFP-11, in service of Starfleet Academy, is prominently featured in DIS: "All Is Possible" when Tilly, Adira and the cadets crash land on the ice moon. In the same episode we can see that the multi-leveled shuttlebay is indeed full of these shuttles.
2. It appears that at least since "All Is Possible", all shuttles of the USS Discovery are of new 32rd century type. No old shuttle can still be seen in season 4.
3. Thousands of these shuttles are used in the evacuation of Earth in DIS:" Coming Home". We can once again see countless shuttles when the Discovery leaves for the final mission in the epilogue of DIS: "Life, Itself".
4. Shuttle UFP-99 is equipped with pathway drive and used by Saru to catch up with Tahal's fleet in DIS: "Life, Itself".

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1. President Rillak presents the spacedock in DIS: "Kobayashi Maru". It seems to remain the only one of its type still in season 5, at least we can see just one at a time
2. By the time of Starfleet Academy season 1 (ca. 3191), this spacedock type is commonplace. We can see several of the in orbit of the unknown planet from where the Athena departs, as well as later around Earth in SFA: "Kids These Days".

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1. Federation Headquarters is first seen in DIS: "Die Trying" and remains in the shield bubble and in the compact (defensive) configuration for the rest of season 3. Strictly speaking, at least still in season 3, the entirety of the central station and the surrounding ships make up Federation Headquarters. The former probably couldn't be maintained and protected without the latter.
2. In DIS: "Coming Home", we see how the station goes to warp for the evacuation of Earth and deploys countless shuttles.
3. When at rest, the station is usually surrounded by a number of cone-shaped panels, whose purpose is never mentioned but which may be supposed to be shield emitters. These structures apparently already existed when the station was still in the shield bubble, but are more clearly visible in seasons 4 and 5.
4. Federation Headquarters, like most other 32nd century ship classes, was designed by Ryan Dening, together with Lee Fitzgerald.
5. The information that the Federation Headquarters is named USS Federation and belongs to the Pax class comes from the dedication plaque, visible in a behind-the-scenes video. It is odd that if this is a ship, it would never be referred to by its name. But it is possible that the USS Federation started its life as some sort of carrier vessel, until the Federation needed a new headquarters. Given that the creators of modern Trek don't know what a ship class is, it is still possible but doubtful that there was actually a USS Pax.
6. A ship/station of this type is also visible as Ake and Caleb approach the Athena in SFA: "Kids These Days".
7. There are three of these ships/stations in existence around the year 3220, as seen in the epilogue of DIS: "Life, Itself".

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1. A largely destroyed and abandoned relay station appears at the beginning and at the end of DIS: "That Hope Is You, Part 2". From here, Aditya Sahil scans a 600 light years radius for traces of Federation ships, but usually without establishing contact.
2. We don't know the former range of purposes and the former complement of the space station. Booker says that it used to be a Federation relay station. But judging by its sheer size, it may have been more than just a subspace relay.

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1. We can see numerous of these stations of different sizes, in orbit of the unnamed planet from where the Athena departs and in orbit of Earth, in SFA: "Kids These Days".
2. There spacedocks in Starfleet Academy comes in different sizes and shapes. Some of them are based on the classic Earth Spacedock, as it first appeared in "Star Trek III" and was last seen, now retired and serving as the Fleet Museum, in PIC season 3. We can also see a smaller variant of that classic spacedock that does not have the characteristic large space doors and hence looks sufficiently different to remain plausible. Other structures are based on the new Earth Spacedock, as it was introduced in PIC season 3.
3. Starfleet Academy strains credibility with the idea that not only those spacedock structures, some of which were already old by the year 2400, survived another 800 years, but that even countless new ones were commissioned. It is good that the spacedocks at least vary in size and shape, but it is just too iconic to be wasted as a generic copy&paste design.

See also Federation Space Stations

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