Daedalus was the name given to the first warp-powered craft launched by the Centauran civilization. It was named after the figure from Earth's Greek mythology, in part because the Centaurans had borrowed the tradition of naming ships and spacecraft from Humans. (TOS novel: Prime Directive)

The naming of this ship likely follows from the claim in the Spaceflight Chronology that the first Earth ship to visit the Centaurans was named Icarus.