Scout or Cruiser Class vessels frequently make astounding new discoveries, but the nature of their missions mean that, more often then not, after an initial survey is complete they need to move on to their next destination. A class of vessel was needed that could then move in with a crew that could take as much time as needed for further study.
Thus, the Oberth Class was developed. Designed to be used almost exclusively for the study of astronomical phenomena, including data gathering missions on stars and planets, the ships of the Oberth Class can take the time other ships do not have to do a full and comprehensive scientific survey.
Given the nature of missions assigned to the Oberth Class, it is highly unusual that they would ever be placed in dangerous situations. Thus, it was most unusual when the U.S.S. Grissom was destroyed in 2285 when a Klingon vessel, acting without official authorization (and thus not subject to Organian intervention), invaded Federation territory. (The exact details of the Grissom's mission at the time are still classified.)
Normally when ships are lost they are not replaced on a one for one basis. However, in the aftermath of the loss of the Grissom, the construction of a new Oberth class vessel was authorized. This was to be the first ship of the class newly built with modern technology rather then refitted. This new ship, the U.S.S. Helin, has shown a marked improvement in performance over older Oberth Class vessels, and further newly built Oberths are being considered.
Thus, the Oberth Class was developed. Designed to be used almost exclusively for the study of astronomical phenomena, including data gathering missions on stars and planets, the ships of the Oberth Class can take the time other ships do not have to do a full and comprehensive scientific survey.
Given the nature of missions assigned to the Oberth Class, it is highly unusual that they would ever be placed in dangerous situations. Thus, it was most unusual when the U.S.S. Grissom was destroyed in 2285 when a Klingon vessel, acting without official authorization (and thus not subject to Organian intervention), invaded Federation territory. (The exact details of the Grissom's mission at the time are still classified.)
Normally when ships are lost they are not replaced on a one for one basis. However, in the aftermath of the loss of the Grissom, the construction of a new Oberth class vessel was authorized. This was to be the first ship of the class newly built with modern technology rather then refitted. This new ship, the U.S.S. Helin, has shown a marked improvement in performance over older Oberth Class vessels, and further newly built Oberths are being considered.
Original Configuration:
List of Ships:
NCC-602 U.S.S. Oberth
NCC-615 U.S.S. Kristiansen NCC-616 U.S.S. Lake NCC-617 U.S.S. Lagrange NCC-618 U.S.S. Hawking NCC-619 U.S.S. Gagarin NCC-620 U.S.S. Aamot NCC-622 U.S.S. Pegasus NCC-623 U.S.S. Faraday NCC-624 U.S.S. Carter NCC-625 U.S.S. Akiyama NCC-626 U.S.S. Huygens NCC-627 U.S.S. Naburimannu NCC-628 U.S.S. Ångström |
NCC-629 U.S.S. Pickering
NCC-630 U.S.S. Lassell NCC-631 U.S.S. Zel'dovich NCC-632 U.S.S. Kirkwood NCC-633 U.S.S. Jekhowsky NCC-634 U.S.S. Shoujing NCC-635 U.S.S. Sagan NCC-636 U.S.S. Nakamura NCC-637 U.S.S. Cochrane NCC-638 U.S.S. Grissom * NCC-639 U.S.S. Banting NCC-640 U.S.S. Copernicus NCC-1692 U.S.S. Helin |
* ship lost in the line of duty
Behind the Scenes Notes
The Oberth Class is not an original design to Yotsuya's Shipyard, and is included to provide context for the many original ship classes featured here. The Oberth Class was designed by members of the special effects house Industrial Light and Magic, as the U.S.S. Grissom, for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
The schematics above are taken from The Star Trek LCARS Blueprint Database. Unfortunately, Oberth Class schematics were not available from Vance's Schematics, the source of most of the materials assembled for this website. Instead, schematics from Jackill's Technical Readout Data Sheets were used, modified somewhat to better match the aesthetic of other designs featured on this website.
The "Original Configuration" Oberth Class is an original Yotsuya's Shipyard design. It was made using pieces from Vance's Toolkits, some heavily modified, and assembled into a conjectural "Original Series-style" design, based on the shape of the official Oberth Class design.
There is no canon evidence of Oberth Class ships existing prior to the 2280's (when classic films after The Motion Picture take place), and in fact most sources mention the class as coming into service sometime in the late 23rd century. Since there is no canon source to contradict them existing earlier, however, this website assumes that to be the case. This is to maintain some consistency to a theory that registry numbers reflect a rough chronology of when ships were constructed. Hence this website's mention of these ships at some point undergoing a refit.
Names and registry numbers: The Oberth Class is a ship that has been shown to be in service for a very extended period, first showing up in Star Trek III and being seen as late as the Star Trek: First Contact. This website is being written from a point of view of the late 23rd (or perhaps very early 24th) century, so any Oberth Class ships shown on The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine would not be considered for inclusion.
According to Memory Alpha, there are definitely three canon Oberth Class ships in this era, and one further one (the Helin) for which the evidence was compelling enough for inclusion on this list. One of these, the Copernicus, is in some materials erroneously given the registry number NCC-623. However, it has been definitively discovered that the filming model, when used as the Copernicus, was labeled NCC-640. This was used as the upper limit for the list on this website, with the exception of the aformentioned Helin.
The Oberth has a registry number of NCC-602. Typically, I would set this as the lower limit. However, this would severely limit the number of Hermes Class scouts, since that is a class that starts with NCC-585. To give the Hermes Class some breathing room, it has been decided to chalk NCC-602 up to "canon ship registry weirdness." (See notes on the Constitution Class for much greater examples.) Thus, the above list jumps from NCC-602 to NCC-615, although it then skips NCC-621 as that is one of the few Hermes Class ships established in canon.
NCC-615, of course, comes from the schematics used here. (In the original schematics, it was only visible on the profile view. Here, it has been added to the appropriate bits of the hull on other angles, as well.) The schematics offered no name for this ship, nor could I find evidence of a name attached to an Oberth of that registry elsewhere. The original version of the schematics used here carried a notice stating, "© (Eric Kristiansen 1995)." So as homage to the name of the person who apparently drew these schematics up, the name U.S.S. Kristiansen was used.
Memory Beta, the non-canon Trek wiki, had four more Oberth Class ships within the number range of the list above. That three of them were NCC-616 through NCC-618 was further vindication that (after 602) NCC-615 had been a good place to start. The final one, NCC-639, slotted quite nicely between the canon ships NCC-638 and NCC-640.
This still left quite a gap in the middle, with 18 more ships needing names. Memory Beta's list had a number of ship names without associated registry numbers, so these were checked to see which ones were known to be in service in the 23rd century, and the appropriate names were randomly assigned to some of the open spaces on the above list.
One of these was a U.S.S. Pegasus, which one assumes will at some point be lost and replaced with the 24th century Oberth Pegasus, NCC-53847, before the era of The Next Generation. Another was a U.S.S. Intrepid II, but this one was skipped as, with there already being two different Constitution Class Intrepids, there was no way that this name could make logical sense. Another was the U.S.S. Freedom, but this was skipped to avoid conflict with the Freedom Class.
This brought the number of open spaces on the above list down to 11. The remaining slots were filled by making up original names, using the names of famous historical astronomers and astrophysicists.
The schematics above are taken from The Star Trek LCARS Blueprint Database. Unfortunately, Oberth Class schematics were not available from Vance's Schematics, the source of most of the materials assembled for this website. Instead, schematics from Jackill's Technical Readout Data Sheets were used, modified somewhat to better match the aesthetic of other designs featured on this website.
The "Original Configuration" Oberth Class is an original Yotsuya's Shipyard design. It was made using pieces from Vance's Toolkits, some heavily modified, and assembled into a conjectural "Original Series-style" design, based on the shape of the official Oberth Class design.
There is no canon evidence of Oberth Class ships existing prior to the 2280's (when classic films after The Motion Picture take place), and in fact most sources mention the class as coming into service sometime in the late 23rd century. Since there is no canon source to contradict them existing earlier, however, this website assumes that to be the case. This is to maintain some consistency to a theory that registry numbers reflect a rough chronology of when ships were constructed. Hence this website's mention of these ships at some point undergoing a refit.
Names and registry numbers: The Oberth Class is a ship that has been shown to be in service for a very extended period, first showing up in Star Trek III and being seen as late as the Star Trek: First Contact. This website is being written from a point of view of the late 23rd (or perhaps very early 24th) century, so any Oberth Class ships shown on The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine would not be considered for inclusion.
According to Memory Alpha, there are definitely three canon Oberth Class ships in this era, and one further one (the Helin) for which the evidence was compelling enough for inclusion on this list. One of these, the Copernicus, is in some materials erroneously given the registry number NCC-623. However, it has been definitively discovered that the filming model, when used as the Copernicus, was labeled NCC-640. This was used as the upper limit for the list on this website, with the exception of the aformentioned Helin.
The Oberth has a registry number of NCC-602. Typically, I would set this as the lower limit. However, this would severely limit the number of Hermes Class scouts, since that is a class that starts with NCC-585. To give the Hermes Class some breathing room, it has been decided to chalk NCC-602 up to "canon ship registry weirdness." (See notes on the Constitution Class for much greater examples.) Thus, the above list jumps from NCC-602 to NCC-615, although it then skips NCC-621 as that is one of the few Hermes Class ships established in canon.
NCC-615, of course, comes from the schematics used here. (In the original schematics, it was only visible on the profile view. Here, it has been added to the appropriate bits of the hull on other angles, as well.) The schematics offered no name for this ship, nor could I find evidence of a name attached to an Oberth of that registry elsewhere. The original version of the schematics used here carried a notice stating, "© (Eric Kristiansen 1995)." So as homage to the name of the person who apparently drew these schematics up, the name U.S.S. Kristiansen was used.
Memory Beta, the non-canon Trek wiki, had four more Oberth Class ships within the number range of the list above. That three of them were NCC-616 through NCC-618 was further vindication that (after 602) NCC-615 had been a good place to start. The final one, NCC-639, slotted quite nicely between the canon ships NCC-638 and NCC-640.
This still left quite a gap in the middle, with 18 more ships needing names. Memory Beta's list had a number of ship names without associated registry numbers, so these were checked to see which ones were known to be in service in the 23rd century, and the appropriate names were randomly assigned to some of the open spaces on the above list.
One of these was a U.S.S. Pegasus, which one assumes will at some point be lost and replaced with the 24th century Oberth Pegasus, NCC-53847, before the era of The Next Generation. Another was a U.S.S. Intrepid II, but this one was skipped as, with there already being two different Constitution Class Intrepids, there was no way that this name could make logical sense. Another was the U.S.S. Freedom, but this was skipped to avoid conflict with the Freedom Class.
This brought the number of open spaces on the above list down to 11. The remaining slots were filled by making up original names, using the names of famous historical astronomers and astrophysicists.