During the 2060s, Cochrane and his team of engineers began developing the warp drive. (Star Trek: First Contact) The challenge of inventing warp theory took Cochrane an extremely long time. (ENT: "Anomaly (ENT)") In 2061, he was responsible for Earth's first successful demonstration of light speed propulsion, though his work was far from complete. (VOY: "Friendship One"; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" library computer file) His primary motivation for commencing warp technology was financial gain in the devastated, poverty-stricken America that existed in the wake of the Third World War.
He finally built Earth's first warp ship, the Phoenix, in the hope its success would prove profitable and allow him to retire to a tropical island filled with naked women. A historical irony was that, contrary to the fact he went on to use the Phoenix to inaugurate an era of peace, Cochrane incorporated a weapon of mass destruction into its design; he constructed the Phoenix in a silo on a missile complex and used a Titan II missile as his launch vehicle.
By 4 April 2063, Doctor Cochrane had made plans to pilot the Phoenix on a test warp flight that was scheduled to launch the next morning. That night, he was witness to an attack from a Borg sphere that fired on the missile complex from above; Borg photon torpedoes exploded extremely close to him, as he desperately struggled to escape. Cochrane was thereafter sought by the crew of the Federation starship USS Enterprise-E, who had recently come back in time from the year 2373 to stop the Borg sphere from preventing first contact. He was temporarily considered by the Enterprise crew to have been killed in the Borg attack.
By the time Dr. Cochrane was located by the Enterprise crew, he had abandoned hope for the continuation of the Phoenix, wishing that the prototype craft would "rest in peace." Cochrane was convinced to half-heartedly persist in his endeavors by the Enterprise-E crew, who treated him like a historical figure, which he was to them. When they confronted him with some particulars of his future image as herald of a better world, Cochrane refused to accept this new role. He initially attempted to literally flee from his destiny, pretending that his departure was merely temporary so he could urinate. He was subsequently pursued by a squad of officers and shot down with a phaser – which he thought of as a laser – set to a minimal power output and wielded by an impatient Commander Will Riker.
Cochrane then became more cooperative; by 10:00 a.m. on 5 April, he had mentally prepared himself to make history (despite a distinctly uncomfortable hangover) and had begun readying the Phoenix for liftoff, even though he still disputed the notion of being idolized. An hour later he was aboard the Phoenix as it launched, with Commander Riker and Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge accompanying him. Cochrane was not only instrumental in the flight of the Phoenix – at one point giving the instruction to activate warp drive with the command, "Engage" – but was also amazed to view the Earth and the Enterprise-E from space and was shocked to experience the sensation of traveling at warp. He broke the warp barrier just after 11:00 a.m., enough to draw the attention of the T'Plana-Hath, a type of Vulcan survey ship which was passing near Earth.
That evening, Cochrane was among many Human spectators who watched the Vulcan ship land in Bozeman, Montana, thereby making first contact with Humans and opening a new era for the whole of mankind. Finding difficulty in returning a Vulcan salute, he welcomed the arrival of the ship's Vulcan captain by engaging him in a handshake, for which Cochrane was thankful. (Star Trek: First Contact)
In an alternate timeline, the Borg succeeded in stopping Cochrane from breaking the warp barrier. His failure to execute that achievement eventually resulted in Earth's being inhabited by an entirely Borg population of approximately nine billion. (VOY: "Relativity"; Star Trek: First Contact)
In 2064, Cochrane acknowledged details about the first contact in Bozeman, in a commencement address at Princeton University. He claimed it had involved "a group of cybernetic creatures from the future" which had been repelled by a group of Humans who had come from the same era. However, Cochrane's remarks were largely shrugged off by his audience as a result of his tendency toward imaginative stories and intoxication. (ENT: "Regeneration")
In time, Cochrane resigned himself to the role history had apparently written for him, rather than maintaining the more fantastical truth of what had happened. (Star Trek: First Contact; ENT: "Regeneration") He recanted his own statements regarding first contact and the two warring groups involved in the event a few years after making the claims. (ENT: "Regeneration") In 2073 he was recorded as proclaiming, "Don't try to be a great man; just be a man, and let history make its own judgments." (Star Trek: First Contact)
In the early 22nd century, Cochrane designed a style of warp reactor that was fitted aboard J-class freighters. It was rumored that he personally signed the inside of each reactor casing. (ENT: "Horizon") He also collaborated with Henry Archer on the warp five engine around this time, working hard to develop it and help make it a reality. In 2119, Cochrane officially opened the Warp Five Complex on Earth, making a speech at the opening ceremony. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Cochrane met Henry's son, Jonathan Archer, the future captain of Enterprise NX-01, while the elder Archer was giving his son a tour of the facility. (ENT: "Singularity", "Daedalus") In a historic holoprogram, Cochrane was said to have given Henry Archer a bottle of whiskey in celebration on the day they broke ground at the Warp Five Complex. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")
In the final draft script of "These Are the Voyages...", Cochrane was referred to as having given the bottle of whiskey sometime "after" he and Henry Archer broke ground at the Warp Five Complex, rather than on the same day. ~ From "Memory Alpha Fandom".
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