NOVA CLASS NX-73515
Starship Prototype
External Blueprints & Deck Plans

Design Team: David Schmidt, Tim Palgut
Copyright: 2006

DESIGN HISTORY:

Project Nova was first proposed by Starfleet Command to the Federation Council in 2261 as an exploration vessel to replace the aging Oberth-class. Rather than design a vessel 'from scratch', the Advanced Starship Design Bureau pulled a designed - yet never built - spaceframe from out of the proposed archives at the Starfleet Tactical Development Division. The design had actually been intended as a 'pocket destroyer' - one of two designs submitted for the Defiant-class.

The Nova-class spaceframe was redesigned into a research ship. Her tactical sensor arrays were replaced with science sensor pallets, and her aft torpedo tubes removed completely - leaving room for a piggyback cargo bay atop the shuttlebay.

The overall design is a scaled-down throwback to the Constitution-class configuration without the interconnecting hull between the primary and secondary hulls - considered a weak point in the Heavy Cruiser design.

The first spaceframe components of the class' lead ship were gamma-welded at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in 2355.

On 19 November 2358, U.S.S. Nova (NX-73515) was launched from Utopia Planitia. She immediately began shakedown trials in the home sectors, being formally commissioned on 30 July 2360.

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