A small space cruiser stolen by Dr Sevrin and his young followers in their search for the planet Eden, destroyed when they overloaded its engines while fleeing the Enterprise.
The Aurora appears at the opening of the episode The Way to Eden. The Enterprise is ordered to recover the stolen ship without harming those aboard, because one of them, Tongo Rad, is the son of the Catullan ambassador. The six fugitives push the engines beyond their limits trying to escape, and the Enterprise beams them off just before the cruiser explodes.
The loss of the Aurora leaves Sevrin's group on the Enterprise, where they charm some of the crew, are joined in their music by Spock and are recognised by Chekov, who knows Irina Galliulin from the Academy. They later seize the starship itself and take a shuttle to the planet they believe is Eden, in Romulan space, where its acid plant life proves deadly.