Starfleet Control was an agency within Starfleet Command that was responsible for maintaining contact with Starfleet vessels and for managing their missions. In 2266, Captain James T. Kirk requested that Starfleet Control be contacted so that they could be alerted to the position of a black star encountered by the USS Enterprise in the vicinity of Starbase 9. Uhura, however, was unable to contact Starfleet Control on standard Starfleet channels because, unknown to the crew at that moment, the ship had traveled back to 20th century Earth.