star trek starship size comparison

Reference Tables

Updated August 18, 2024

When I first started making my starship comparison charts, I gave little thought to documenting my references. I just wanted to see the ships side-by-side! But over the years, the Star Trek Minutiae reference charts have been shared widely on social media and have even been referenced (sometimes erroneously) by official sources. To help provide the most accurate information possible, these tables provide sources for the size of the ship and credit for the artist (where known) who created the image that is used in the chart. If any ship image is used with missing or incorrect credit, please let me know !

Star Trek (all series)

Entries marked [NC] denote non-canon ships.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Battlestar galactica (1978), battlestar galactica (2003), close encounters of the third kind, dune (2000), the expanse, for all mankind, forbidden planet, galaxy quest, independence day, interstellar, the last starfighter, marvel cinematic universe, the orville, silent running, space battleship yamato ( star blazers ), space: 1999, space: above and beyond, starship troopers, war of the worlds (1953).

Universe Today

Space and astronomy news

A Mindblowing Spaceship Chart Every Sci-Fi Fan Needs to See

Have you always wanted to know how a Xurian Scout Fighter compares to a Valor-class Type-2 Valkyrie Attack Fighter? Wonder no more. DeviantARTist Dirk Loechel has created what is likely the most accurate and complete size comparison chart of almost every science fiction starship, from famous Star Trek and Stars Wars battle cruisers to ships from games like Halo to vessels from obscure sci-fi books. This new chart is an updated version of one Loechel made earlier. It looks like Loechel is taking suggestions for doing another update if you find he’s missed some.

Click on the image above to have access to the large original version on DeviantART, and enjoy the diversion.

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Feb 9 The Massive SciFi Starship Size Comparison Chart

The massive SciFi  Starship Size Comparison Chart is one of my favorite infographic design projects. Designed by Dirk Loechel and shared on DeviantArt, this is a project he has been working on for years. I posted an earlier version of his design in 2013 here  which was hugely popular. Dirk’s notes claim that this may be the last update.

The last update For real this time: This is the final major content update, though if there are issues I’ll still fix them. I also haven’t forgotten I wanted to vectorize the writing. It’s still on the radar. But content-wise, I think that is about all I can put in.  Also, I added the ISS. For scale. It’s on top, with a yellow frame so it’s relatively easy to find. Lots of errors fixed, lots of new ships too. Well, off for now, but I’ll be replying in the comments more or less regularily.  This is probably at least for the forseseeable future the last round of adding ships. I have pretty much all I wanted now (excepting some old scifi, and many Anime series, which tend to not have many usable images). Lots of new content. And that’s it for now. Enjoy the new-and-improved chart! 

This is one of the visual designs that clearly demonstrates why visuals can be much more effective than text descriptions. Especially when it comes to comparing size and scale. You just don’t comprehend the scope when someone tells you that the Star Wars Executor Class Super Star Destroyer is 19,000 meters long. You have to see it in comparison to something you already know.

The images on DeviantArt are high enough in resolution, that you can download and print it out as a poster yourself to hang on your wall. The full-size poster resolution is 4,268 x 5,690 pixels. Most of the ships are clustered by franchise (Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, Eve, Warhammer, etc.). As a reality check, the International Space Station (ISS) is included for reference.

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Starship Sizes

What is so interesting about starship sizes?

My answer is that they are an important part of Star Trek's consistency. Other figures such as warp speed or phaser power often lead to pointless discussions because they are quite abstract. In contrast, a physical dimension is something much more definite because it can be determined without any knowledge about fictitious subspace physics or the rapid nadion effect. We just need to recall that starships are built to accommodate humans or humanoids to recognize that size does matter.

General Considerations

Starship sizes are often unknown or, even worse, disputed. The reason is that they are no real-world objects designed for and built in a certain size. Each ship exists only as a model (hardware or CGI), plus a limited number of full-scale sets that are supposed to be somewhere inside. The size of the "real" ship depends not only on what the model looks like but also on how it is presented on screen. Kitbashing or scaling up and down an existing design often obstructs the size estimation.

Basically, there are three possible references to determine the size of a starship:

Outer/inner structure The decks of Federation starships are usually around 3.5m tall, confirmed by the interior sets whose basic cross-sections are about the same for all Federation ships and by MSDs and deck measurements of those ships whose size and deck count is known. The clear height of rooms and corridors on a ship is some 2.5m, bearing in mind that 24th century humans are evidently not taller than in the 21st century. Andrew Probert assumed 10 feet between decks, 2 feet in between and hence a ceiling height of 8 feet. Rick Sternbach designed the deck centerlines to be 3m to 4m apart, with 0.5m in between to accommodate EPS and consumables conduits. This gives us up to 3.5m clear space, or it would allow Jefferies tubes between the decks . So unless we know how tall the decks are intended to be, there is an uncertainty range of some 25%. Moreover, this method doesn't work for alien vessels that often don't have window rows to count, let alone cross-sections to shed light on their internal structure. Even if it were possible to count the decks, the deck height is not necessarily the same as on Federation ships. Using deck heights as a scale Evaluating starship encounters Starship encounters Starship encounters or space battles are commonly used references, provided that trustworthy figures for at least one of the participating ships are known. However, when analyzing the visual effects of the pre-CGI age, the limitations of motion control photography have to be taken into account. Occasionally two ships of different scales were filmed in one take (like the Excelsior and Enterprise-D), moreover naturally at a much too close distance. Shuttles sometimes can't be made as small as they should be because they would be barely recognizable. But even in cases where it would be technically possible to get the relative scaling right and with modern CGI, VFX people sometimes don't do their job carefully enough or even increase or decrease ships intentionally for the dramatic impact. So the comparison method may yield contradictory results. A considerable error has to be taken into account, and often the only reliable statement is something like "the unknown ship X is bigger than ship A", or "ship X is at most or at least y meters long". Official/VFX sizes Size figures in official publications or given by individuals involved in the production process (Probert, Okuda, Sternbach, Drexler, Eaves, Stipes) are possible references likewise. However, they should be treated judiciously, for they don't necessarily reflect the "actual" sizes of the ships. For instance, if the designer says his ship is x meters long, but the VFX people evidently always assume y meters, the whole thing has to be reconsidered. Moreover, ship sizes may be based on a preliminary sketch rather than the final ship, or they use a faulty reference, which is the case in the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual where, among other ships, the well-known Excelsior is scaled up by 10%. The sizes mentioned in several official publications are evaluated on a separate page .

A Classification System

Concerning the reliability of size figures and of the designs themselves, I have found the following categories of ships (however, I don't refer to them elsewhere at EAS because they are too abstract):

Type A A ship which has been designed in a process close to real engineering and is well-documented, implying that the designer has adhered to a certain size and deck count and the people in charge of the VFX abide by this size. There is at least a sketch of the interior layout in the form of an MSD or a similar cross-section, and it has to match the outer appearance as indicated by window rows and lifeboats. If such a ship is present in a scene with contradictory size ratios, it has to be used as a reference, rather than being scaled up or down itself. Such a design is what it should be, a scale model, i.e. with a fixed scale and a definite size. Only the major ships featured in the shows, the Constitution refit, Galaxy, Intrepid and NX classes are of this type, but rather not the Defiant and definitely not the "Star Trek (2009)" Enterprise . Type B A ship which has not been designed quite as carefully as type A, but whose size can be exactly determined due to very reliable references. For instance, the ship employs the same components as another ship, or there is a size chart that has been used for both the design and the VFX. If this applies, the figures are as reliable as those of type A. The Miranda, Constellation, Sydney , Nebula , Prometheus, Vor'cha, D7 and K't'inga are members of type B. Type C A ship whose size is not quite as evident, but can be determined with a reasonable uncertainty range. This is the case if the size based on the deck count, the size comparison with other ships, a possible figure provided by the designer and references from literature are close together. The error should not be more than 10%. This type includes the Ambassador, Excelsior , Akira , Oberth , D'deridex, Galor and the Ferengi Marauder. Type D A ship whose size stays roughly the same in VFX shots, but a reliable figure is not available. Such a ship often doesn't have window rows to count, and it seems it has been intentionally designed without a definite size in mind. There are many alien ship types in this category, for instance the Romulan scout, Jem'Hadar "bug" and battlecruiser, (Bajoran) Antares-class freighter and Bajoran raider, as well as the Norway, Steamrunner and Saber. Type E A ship whose perceived size is subject to vary and is in dispute, irrespective of the figures given in publications, by the designer or by the VFX staff. This is the case if a design changes its size (Defiant, Deep Space 9, "Star Trek (2009)" Enterprise) or if the same model is used to represent ships of intentionally different sizes ( Klingon Bird-of-Prey , Kazon raider/fighter , Jem'Hadar battleship ), both of which is impossible. The same applies for kitbashed designs combining scaled components such as the Yeager class. Type F A ship whose size is not that relevant. These are alien-of-the-week ships for which the same model (the triangular guest starship from TNG, for instance) is used again and again. Other ships whose size doesn't matter that much are those which can be described as "just huge" (Borg cube, Kazon mothership) or "just tiny" (ships which are described as shuttles or single-seated).

Summarizing, there are reliable figures for type A and B ships. The sizes of type C ships are not exactly known, but the evidence is sufficient for a good estimation. Ships of type D are satisfactory in that there are no blatant inconsistencies, but fans have derived different figures all of which could be true. Essentially the same applies to the type F ships.

This leaves the type E ships as the ones that cause controversies because of contradictory evidence. We have to come up with a compromise, but which one would be appropriate? We could take the average of the varying VFX sizes. We could ignore the most blatant outliers from what we consider a reasonable size. We could decide that the designer's intent overrules VFX sizes if the latter are not consistent. There is no ultimate recipe and usually no definitely true or wrong size estimation. And even though some of the conclusions at EAS may sound dogmatic, I am open to suggestions.

Type G A ship that has been redesigned per the "visual reboot" principle. This always means, it is much bigger (in DIS or SNW) than it used to be (in TOS). The original USS Enterprise and the D7 battlecruiser belong into this category.

There is most definitely no way the TOS and the corresponding DIS/SNW starship designs could be the same or could have the same size. This is the most important of several reasons why starships from the reboots are in confinement at EAS.

Starship Size Table - a list of starship sizes as given in several publications

Starship Scaling - about starships that look the same but are (supposed to be) of different sizes

Fleet Charts - comparison of all ships which allow a reasonable size estimation

Fleet Chart Annotations - references used for the ship lengths listed at EAS 

The New Enterprise Design - my two cents on the redesign in "Star Trek (2009)" and its true size

Defiant Problems - Just how little is the tough little ship?

The Bird-of-Prey Size Paradox - one, two or even more sizes?

Size of the Dominion Battleship - Does the 5km version really exist?

Thanks to Boris S. and to the people in the Starships & Other Technology forum of the Flare Sci-Fi Forums for suggestions. Thanks to Greg Price for the deck height references.

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/ship_sizes.htm

Last modified: 07 Aug 2022

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This website is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with CBS Studios Inc. or the Star Trek franchise.

Fleet Yards

Starship size comparison chart updated

We here are ShortList.com have an apology to make. We made a mistake, we mislead you and for that we are truly sorry.

You see, late last year we shared an exceptional poster with you all. The work of German graphic designer Dirk Loechel, it was a size comparison chart the likes of which we'd never seen. We were rightly impressed, and made the bold claim that "every sci-fi starship" was contained within its monstrous depths.

We were wrong. As word of the poster spread, more and more sci-fi aficionados came forth to point out oversights, errors and ships missing from the star-gazing canon. The poster didn't contain every sci-fi starship ever - just a great many.

We should point out that Loechel never made this claim. He's just a fan of spaceships, inspired by the work of Jeff Russell , keen to help sci-fi fans gain a context for their favourite vessels. And he's carried on his amazing work. Below we have the updated Starship Comparison Chart, bigger than ever before. It's added missing Star Trek gems, Red Dwarf essentials and a heap of others. It's not every ship ever, but it's not far off.

And no, the TARDIS isn't on there. It's too small.

To view the full size image click on the image below. To see more of Dirk's work, visit his DeviantArt page .

(Images: Dirk Loechel ; Rex)

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Continuing Mission

Starship Scale Comparison

The Star Trek Adventures game system uses a simplified system for representing the size of starships, with each spaceframe being assigned a scale. There’s a range of lengths and widths between starships of the same size. Because there’s so much variability between ships of the same scale, let alone between scales, it’s sometimes hard to picture how ships compare. Especially as, in a few cases, scale is often rounded up to denote the increased potency of a ship.

This article compares the sizes of most of the official spaceframes and ships released by Modiphius. To avoid scaling or perspective issues, I restricted myself to ships that can also be found in Star Trek Online and further limited myself to ships where I could find semi-official sizes for on Memory Beta .

Scale 3 ships range from the tiny 68-meter Jem’Hadar strike ship to the 170-meter Defiant -class starship. At times, these can be only slightly larger than some small craft.

Arguably, since the Maquis’ raiders were comparable in size to the Jem’Hadar attack ship, the difference between a scale 2 small craft and a scale 3 starship is less a factor of size and more the ship’s capabilities and versatility. Or even just the number of crew able to serve on the bridge at one time.

This is the rough scale of most starships in the 23rd and 24th century, and is roughly comparable in length to a modern aircraft carrier.

These ships range in length from the 237-meter Miranda -class and the 228-meter Klingon D7 cruiser to the 415-meter Prometheus -class and 425-meter New Orleans -class, which is only 25-meters shorter than the Luna -class.

At this length, most starships are as long as two or three city blocks. They might have the height of highrise. With 11 decks, a Miranda -class is comparable in height to a 10 to 12-story office building.

Ships of this scale range from 450-meters to over 500-meters, such as the 525-meter Ambassador -class. Even well into the late years of the 24th Century these ships were large and required a lot of resources to construct.

The odd-ship-out here is the Klingon, K’Vort, an upsized B’Rel bird-of-prey. Officially, this ship is a beefy 678-meters in length, dwarfing the supposed flagships, the Vor’Cha. The reason for this is poor scaling in a few visual shots of The Next Generation , where the bird-of-prey models were presented as much too large compared to the Enterprise .

This scale is the largest ships the various powers of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants can produce.

The smallest ship here is the 682-meter Negh’Var , while the D’Deridex , at 1041 meters, is so large was it was mistakenly sized as scale 7 in early printings of the Core Rulebook .

It’s been noted that the saucer of the Galaxy- class is roughly the same size as the Pentagon; although the saucer is three times the height, it’s probably not that much larger in terms of volume given the sloping hull. Amusingly, the saucer is also roughly the same length as the Constitution -class. The original Enterprise could comfortably fit in the primary hull of the Enterprise – D.

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6 responses to “Starship Scale Comparison”

What gets me is that the Constellation class is bigger then the Constitution or Miranda classes, but was always shown as having a cramped bridge.

@Steven Ross Maybe Starfleet overloaded it with scientific equipment and specialist areas in comparison to the Constitution.

FWIW, I’m presently trying to calculate (by which I mean guesstimate) the scale of starships and space stations greater than scale 6. Using the Eaglemoss Collections to-scale pictures of their Star Trek miniatures (dated October 2020, so it’s the latest and most up-to-date to-scale comparisons of Star Trek ships and stations), I’m trying to get accurate scale stats of everything from Deep Space 9 (it should be Scale 8, not 12 as written in the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook) to Earth Spacedock and Starbase 74 (I’ve estimated Scale 14 and 15 respectively).

My research continues.

Which source is everyone using to get the lengths of various ships? According to the Eaglemoss PDFs I got, the D’deridex is 1,353 meters long, not 1,000, which would make it at least Scale 7 if not Scale 8. Also, the Neg’var is 682 meters long, not 382. That’s almost half the length of the Neg’var cut off right there.

Ugh, and now I can’t find the link where I downloaded the Eaglemoss PDFs detailing all the scale size comparisons. Good thing I have the PDFs in my computer, though.

–edited– As I said in the article, I used Memory Beta as my source, often preceded by Memory Alpha. This has the D’deridex at 1041.65 (rounded down an even thousand for descriptive purposes in the text)

You are correct that the Neg’var is way off. Curious. I don’t know where the 382 came from. It’s possible I made a typo when copying the length in my notes and ran with it. Or someone editing the site made a typo that has since been corrected. Either way, I will have to edit the photos and correct that error when I have the chance.

Double checked and the typo was strictly in the article. The ship in the image is the correct size. So the error was all me. Thanks for checking!

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Star Trek Online Starship Comparison

By @dabelgrave.

You can easily compare ships. Filter by Tier and Faction, and select which group of stats you wish to see. By default, all tiers for all factions are shown. You can also filter by category, and compare up to four of categories at a time.

These results are queried directly from this Google spreadsheet (which contains additional info and formatting): http://bit.ly/STOShips .

Have you found missing or incorrect stats? Tell me about it on the STO Forums .

Join 'The Phoenix Division' today. Contact @daBelgrave in Star Trek Online.

13 Jul 2019

Star trek size comparison charts - the kelvin timeline.