The U.S.S. Clarke was one of the Starfleet ships that took part in the Battle at the Binary Stars in DISCOVERY's opening episodes. It is a very compact ship and the nacelles are connected to the saucer section. It was designed by John Eaves who made it part of the Malachowski class, in honor of one of the X Plane test pilots. One version of the design was briefly considered for the Shenzhou.