Before the Voyages: The Early Reach of United Earth In Star Trek
The voyage of the NX-01 Enterprise was a historic event in Human history in Star Trek - the initial voyage in 2151, as the first Warp 5 Earth ship, made a number of first contacts and explorations that eventually led to the formation of the Federation itself. However, very little is said about what United Earth knew about prior to the voyage. There are only a handful of references to other Earth colonies, which are never seen onscreen (apart from within the Sol system or the lost colony at Terra Nova). So I decided to go through Enterprise and see what I could find reference-wise to worlds and species known prior to the start of the show. Most of the references come from the first two seasons - the Enterprise remains mostly within the Delphic Expanse for the third season, and in the fourth season we do not see much in the way of exploration apart from a handful of episodes. Earth...
