In the Mass Effect games, everyone needs their own spaceship so they can navigate the galaxy safely. The Systems Alliance Navy isn't the biggest or best space fleet around, but humanity is trying to make up for lost time, and the Alliance boasts a remarkable fleet given its young age compared to the Turian Hierarchy. The best ship in that fleet was, without a doubt, the SR-1 Normandy.
For a time, the Normandy was the most advanced ship of its day, being capable of things no other Alliance or Hierarchy ship could dream of. This was the personal ship of Captain David Anderson and, later, Commander Shepard. It was with this ship that the Commander foiled Saren's master plan and saved the galaxy.
Origins & Construction
The SR-1 Normandy, or the SSV Normandy, was the first ship of its kind in more ways than one. This was a vessel of historical significance, since it was co-developed by Alliance and Hierarchy engineers as a joint project. This was done not only to push the boundaries of shipbuilding, but also to help mend ties between the Alliance and Hierarchy. Both parties still clearly remembered the bloody First Contact War.
Humanity and the Turians were not the best of friends, but they didn't want to be enemies. The Normandy could stand as an early symbol of human-Turian cooperation and understanding. This was meant as an inspirational political move, though reception in the Alliance was mixed. Some saw it as a waste of money or as fraternization with the enemy.
The Normandy was commissioned and built in 2183, and it featured elements of both human and Turian shipbuilding theory. It was a frigate capable of flying at great speeds that could use mass relays unassisted. As for the interior, this vessel had three decks, with the command deck being the main one. The ship featured a forward cockpit for two, and as of Captain David Anderson's time, the Normandy was helmed by Jeff "Joker" Moreau, an Alliance flight lieutenant.
The CIC, or combat information center, could be found in the ship's main body. Here, crew members could aim the weapons and run the other systems. A galaxy map (a 3-D hologram) was available for the captain to use at will to plot a course for the pilot. The command deck's rear included a briefing room where officers could send and receive messages from just about anywhere. Commander Shepard often spoke to the Council this way.
The second deck was the crew deck, and it featured the mess hall, bunk beds, restrooms, a few personal lockers and the infirmary. There, Dr. Karen Chakwas tended to the wounded and carried out psyche evaluations. Below that was the engineering/storage deck where the Mako rover was stored, along with more gun lockers and the drive core's room.
This area featured a large door that could lower itself to allow the Mako and soldiers to deploy with ease once the Normandy was hovering over the ground. This was how Shepard, Jenkins and Kaiden Alenko deployed during their mission on Eden Prime.
Most significant was the Normandy's stealth drive. The ship did not turn invisible to the naked eye; instead, it used an internal emissions sink (IES), to trap the ship's radiation within the hull. In the Mass Effect universe, space vessels detect each other by sensing their radiation and heat emissions, meaning if a ship doesn't give off any, no ships or space stations can sense it.
That, coupled with the Normandy's relatively large drive core, made it an ideal reconnaissance and troop insertion vehicle, able to slip through any enemy defenses. The downside was the Normandy's enormous price tag, something that more than a few Alliance officers resented.
The Normandy in History
The Normandy was built to make history, and it didn't take long for the ship to do just that. As of 2183, its first year of service, Captain Anderson took it on a test flight to Eden Prime, but that wasn't its only goal. Commander Shepard was being considered for becoming the first human Spectre, an elite agent.
The Normandy was assigned to fly Shepard to Eden Prime so they could retrieve a Prothean-era beacon in a covert operation. Despite the heavy Geth presence, the Normandy dropped off a Turian Spectre named Nihlus, then Shepard's squad while entirely avoiding the Geth. No one even tried to shoot the Normandy, despite its size.
When Shepard became a Spectre, they became the Normandy's new captain (though without gaining the actual rank of Captain). The Commander flew the ship from one corner of the galaxy to the other, using it to extract Dr. Liara T'Soni from crumbling, molten Prothean ruins and flying the ship into a Geth war zone on the urban world of Feros.
The Normandy also arrived on Saren's world of Virmire and delivered a makeshift nuclear bomb that blasted Saren's Krogan cloning/research base into a smoking crater. It also delivered Shepard and the Mako to Saren's Geth-held world of Ilos. The Normandy finally met its end when the Collector cruiser ambushed it shortly after Saren's defeat, but it would live on in a new form one day.