Class J starship The class J starship was a small , antiquated starship design used by the Federation and independent traders alike well into the mid - 23rd century . ( ) History . In 2266 , Harcourt Fenton Mudd possessed an unregistered small class J cargo ship which he utilized as a transport vessel . While attempting to outrun the , Mudd piloted the ship into an asteroid belt , in the process causing his engines to overheat . Disabled , the ship was ultimately destroyed by an asteroid collision , but not before the " Enterprise " was able to beam off all of the ship ' s inhabitants . ( ) The same year , Starfleet maintained an old class J starship for use as a cadet training vessel . During an inspection by Fleet Captain Pike , a baffle plate ruptured , exposing the crew to harmful delta ray s . Pike received an extremely high dose which ultimately left him an invalid , as he went in to rescue the cadets . ( ) The Deneva colony also had a class J starship at their disposal , described as a one - man vessel of Denevan configuration . The " Enterprise " was unable to intercept it , after it came into sensor range , even at warp 8 before it was destroyed by the heat of the . ( ) In 2269 , the Federation operated the space cruiser " . The ship was stolen by Dr . Sevrin and five of his followers in search for the mythical planet Eden . The ship was destroyed when attempting to pull free from a tractor beam . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The " class J " moniker was twice referenced in the " Original Series " : once as a " small class - J cargo ship " , in " Mudd ' s Women " , and again as the unseen " old class - J starship " in " The Menagerie , Part I " . The term , this time as the reversed " J class " , was ( re ) introduced in , but was later proven to be a completely unrelated design , with the introduction of a new design ( see below ) devised for the remastered " Original Series " . This new design was used to represent not only the remastered " class - J cargo ship " , but also added two additional appearances of the class , as the remastered " Aurora " and Denevan starship . According to lines appearing in the final draft of the script for " Mudd ' s Women " , dated , the ship ' s class was not specifically stated to be class " J " . In that earlier version of dialogue , Spock stated that " " [ he made ] it out as Earth vessel composition . About the size of the old class " J " cargo ships , " " with John Farrell responding , " " Can ' t be . He ' d know he can ' t outrun a starship . " " While the actual lines that were used " did " make it the class description much clearer , when Spock said specifically , " " I make it out as a small class " J " cargo ship , " " but left it up in the air as to whether it was an Earth vessel or not . Studio model . The studio model used in the original edition of " The Way to Eden " for the " Aurora " was a modification of one of the two studio models that previously appeared in , a necessity , as the studio was by then suffering from severe budget restrictions and simply had no funding left for new studio model builds . The modifications between the new design include the addition of warp nacelle s to the model , taken from the AMT USS " Enterprise " model kit ( no . S921 or S951 ) , which were attached to the main body via nacelle pylons taken from the AMT model kit ( no . S952 ) , with the completed model finally being flown in " reverse " . In this configuration , the model was gifted by Paramount Television in 1974 to the Smithsonian Institution , where it made its first and , to date , only public appearance in the 1992 - 1994 " Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit " , after having received an extensive restoration by Ed Miarecki and his staff at Science Fiction Modelmaking Associates . On the occasion , Miarecki made use of the opportunity to cast an additional copy of the model to represent the original Tholian starship as well in the exhibition , as was later confirmed by Gary Kerr . ( " source " ) The actual sibling model was in effect still in existence , as it turned out to be retained by former " Original Series " Set Designer John Jefferies , who sold his possession at auction nine years later . When the remastered version of the " Original Series " came along , its Visual Effects Producer Michael Okuda decided to make use of the opportunity to retcon a new CGI starship design for those instances where a simple nondescript optical was used originally to represent a generic transport / freighter , or was not featured at all , yet emphatically referred to in on - screen visuals as was the case with the Denevan ship . As such the newly - designed class J CGI model was featured in the 2008 remastered episode versions ; first in " Operation - - Annihilate ! " as the Denevan starship , and subsequently in " Mudd ' s Women " as , what Okuda had called , " Mudd ' s freighter " . In both these cases , care was taken to have the model only featured at a great distance and barely discernible , in order to stay as close as possible to the " feel " of the original episodes . In a mischievous nod to Harcourt Mudd , Okuda had intended to name his freighter " Stella " , the name of the wife that Mudd was running from ; " " If we had seen the ship more clearly in remastered ep , I would have had the ship so labeled , " " stated Okuda , referring to the great distance Mudd ' s ship was featured . The model appeared for a final time in more detail in the remastered version of " The Way to Eden " as the " Aurora " freighter . Okuda , who actually had designed the vessel himself , confirmed that the CGI " Aurora " was a slight modification of the class J CGI model , with larger engines and new windows . The registry NC - 17740 on the nacelles , illegible on screen , was the tail number from Matt Jefferies ' ( brother to Set Designer John ) 1935 Waco YOC biplane . Additionally , the remastered CGI " Aurora " design shares a design lineage very similar to Jefferies ' original " teardrop " exterior design for a number of early " shuttlecraft / scout craft " sketches ( featured in the " " , pp . 86 - 87 ) , which he , as " Original Series " art director " and " aeronautics expert , in effect had wanted all along in the first place . And indeed , this actually corresponded with the script draft of 12 November 1968 , in which the " Aurora " ( or rather " Argo " in that draft version ) was described as " ( . . . ) small , rather like the " Enterprise " shuttlecraft . " ( Scenes 3 & 5 , p . 2 ) Jefferies ' " curved shape " designs were ultimately rejected for being " too expensive " to produce , in favor of the design that would be associated with the Class F shuttlecraft . ( " see Class F shuttlecraft model for further particulars " ) It was therefore Michael Okuda , an admirer and personal friend of Jefferies in later life , who at long last fulfilled , in part at least , the vision for the design Jefferies originally had . The new , digital model was constructed at CBS Digital in the CGI software . ( " Sci - fi & fantasy modeller " , Vol . 26 , p . 49 ) In 2015 , former " Star Trek " Producer Dave Rossi made the entire starship database of the remastered " Original Series " available to Project Manager Ben Robinson for representation in the British partwork publication " " . However , these models , including the class J , were not quite production and / or print ready , as the models needed to be converted into , the software package of choice for the vast majority of " Star Trek " digital modelers . Robinson assigned Fabio Passaro , among others , to this chore .