Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The USS Discovery You Need To Know
1. My God That's A Big Ship
Trying not to read too much into it, but the size of starships has been a contentious issue with Star Trek fans, particularly in the Kelvin Timeline and Star Trek: Discovery eras of "bigger is better".
Though the size of the USS Discovery has never been stated on screen, behind-the-scenes materials have placed the Crossfield-class starship at roughly 750 meters long, nearly twice the size of The Original Series' USS Enterprise. While it has been revealed that the Enterprise is at least several years older than the Discovery, this still makes her considerably larger than any other known Federation starship in the Prime Universe's 23rd century... and about 70 meters longer than the USS Enterprise-E of a century later.
The funny thing about Discovery's relatively massive size is the fact that her crew compliment is specifically stated as being 136, whereas similarly sized 24th century starships – like the 640 meter Galaxy-class ship – carried over 1000 officers and crew.
So why is the USS Discovery so large and what accounts for the all the empty space?
In "Context is for Kings", Commander Saru tells then-prisoner Michael Burnham that Discovery is outfitted for over 300 "discrete scientific missions" – a Starfleet record. It's entirely possible that ship is simply full of unused labs, space for future expansion, and scientific equipment.
The other explanation? Those engines are hella long, accounting for nearly 50% of Discovery's length.