Deep Space Station K-7 was a Federation space station outpost near Sherman’s Planet, located one parsec from the nearest Klingon outpost. A Federation development project for Sherman’s Planet in 2268 was threatened when some 1,771,561 tribbles infested the station’s storage bins of quadrotriticale intended for the project.  Although the station was constructed by Starfleet, it was under civilian administration. Most of K-7 was uninhabitable, with the bulk of the station consisting of storage areas and industrial fabrication facilities.

Station Model (Physical)

As portrayed in Star Trek: The Original Series - “The Trouble with Tribbles” (TV, 1967) Deep Space Station K-7 was the very first free-floating space station ever seen in the Star Trek franchise. Although Matt Jefferies developed some preliminary design sketches, the final design was based on concepts for a real-life space station/moon base developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company for NASA as early as 1960. The filming model of K-7 was actually physically made from one large and three smaller models of those concepts that had been gifted to Gene Roddenberry by Douglas Aircraft.  Richard Datin Jr. of the Howard Anderson Company, who was previously contracted to build the original Enterprise studio models, was called in to modify these concept models for them to become K-7.  The original studio model built for The Original Series has been missing for decades, either lost or destroyed.  A new physical model of the station was built by Greg Jein for the 1996 Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations”, and a CG model was later constructed for the 2006 remaster of the original episode.