The Earth sleeper ship carrying Khan Noonien Singh and his followers into exile.
The SS Botany Bay was an Earth sleeper ship launched in the late twentieth century during a time of political turmoil. It carried a group of genetically engineered humans in suspended animation, led by Khan Noonien Singh, who had sought to rule much of Earth in the Eugenics Wars. After their defeat they fled into space in the ship and drifted for centuries.
The Enterprise under Captain Kirk found the vessel adrift and revived the crew. Khan, who was charming and brilliant, charmed the historian Marla McGivers and used her to take control of the starship. Kirk eventually regained command and put Khan on trial, but rather than imprisoning him, he offered exile on a wild planet, Ceti Alpha V, where Khan and his people could build a new life.
The Botany Bay is remembered as the vessel that carried the most memorable adversary of the original series. Khan returned many years later, after a nearby planet exploded and devastated the world he lived on, to seek revenge on Kirk. The sleeper ship itself was left behind, but its story shaped the later franchise's treatment of genetic engineering.