Star Trek warp ship question.

[Kerbal01]

You remember the Phoenix from Star Trek: First Contact? How do you think it was launched, into orbit and from there to its warp trip or a direct ascent trip out of the earth-Moon system? I was wondering this for reasons relating to the Star Trek themed mod in my sig. If you have anything else to discuss about that ship do discuss it here.

[Nuke]

i would assume it was on a suborbital trajectory. being built into a (likely cold war era) nuclear missile with intercontinental range, not orbital capacity. then add to that the weight of the crew capsule and the warp drive. i very much doubt it was orbit capable without the warp drive. at warp 1 it would still be impractical to go much farther than an interplanetary distance. you would need a much bigger ship than that.

[KerbMav]

Hm, warp drive without some means of propulsion isnt really worth much - the warp field only bends the space-time in front of the ship to shorten the "distance" it has to travel, but something has to push the ship through the bend space - but it was only a test, so no fast speed was required and I think for the story in the movie the signature of the warp field would have been enough.

The real question is: How did they get back down to earth?