Around 18 BBY, the Galactic Empire engineered a cutting-edge prototype scout ship known as the Star Herald. Its design featured an elongated, arrow-shaped hull that supported a tractor beam projector, and it possessed at least one probe capable of underwater exploration. Visler Korda, a disgraced former Imperial officer who was stripped of his rank and forced to work in the spice mines of Kessel, absconded with the Star Herald. Aided by RX-48, a manumitted pilot droid, Korda piloted the stolen vessel to the Xala system, seeking vengeance against Milo and Lina Graf, whom he blamed for his downfall. The Imperial High Command took a dim view of the prototype's theft. Although the ship was downed on Agaris, the Graf family repaired it after Lina, Milo, and their droid CR-8R liberated their parents, Auric and Rhyssa, from their imprisonment within the Imperial compound located on the planet. Wilhuff Tarkin gave the order to destroy it as it departed Agaris, but the ship narrowly escaped by engaging its hyperdrive and jumping to the Lothal system before it could be obliterated.
During the era of the Galactic Civil War and beyond, the Star Herald saw considerable action under the command of Milo and Lina Graf. Lina Graf collaborated with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and the explorer Lor San Tekka using the vessel. She pledged the ship to Skywalker as a future favor should he require it.
In 21 ABY, Skywalker requested the promised favor at the Adelphi New Republic staging outpost while assisting a family in their escape from the resurging Sith, who had dispatched Ochi of Bestoon. They journeyed to Polaar to confer with Komat, a former member of the Acolytes of the Beyond.
The ship was later inherited by Milo's grandson, Emil Graf, who utilized it to document Wild Space. Emil Graf's crew consisted of CR-8R, the BB-series astromech droid BB-00, and the Kowakian monkey-lizard Noni.
The young-adult novel Adventures in Wild Space: The Cold, penned by Cavan Scott with illustrations by David M. Buisán and published by Egmont UK on March 9, 2017, marked the Star Herald's debut. The ship's design seems to be a direct copy of a fan-created "Sienar Fleet Systems Scout ship" that was drawn in 2013 by an artist going by the username "AdamKop" on DeviantArt. Buisán stated that this fan creation was the reference material provided to him by Lucasfilm. In 2025, Buisán revisited the exchange and added that the mistake may not be from Lucasfilm but rather the publisher, though he remained unsure.