Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Warp Drive

10. Humans Were Very Late To The Game

Everybody knows that humanity achieved their first independent warp flight on April 5th, 2063. On this day, Zefram Cochrane piloted the Phoenix, the ship that he created from the shell of a nuclear missile, breaking the light speed barrier for the first time. This attracted attention, widening humanity's view of the universe.

The Vulcan survey ship T'plana-Hath was passing through the Sol system and was alerted to the flight. They made first contact with Earth, beginning the process that would eventually lead to the formation of the Federation. For the Vulcans however, this achievement came almost three millennia after they had broken the light-speed barrier themselves.

It was roughly the 9th century BC, Earth reckoning when the Vulcans achieved warp drive. However, according to Ronald D. Moore, Cochrane is still credited as inventing warp drive as it is understood in the Star Trek universe. This could mean that the Vulcans had been using a less sophisticated form of propulsion - similar to the Romulan method of forced quantum singularities - that was then abandoned after meeting with Cochrane in the 21st century.