The Y-8 is the most common asteroid mining vessel in the galaxy today, and it is easy to see why. When looking to design the ship, the original shipwrights spent several months in space working with a number of mining guilds to actually understand the needs of asteroid miners. The resulting ship has proven to be almost the ideal vessel for extracting resources from deepspace asteroid fields.

The Y-8 boasts a tall, slender hull, well suited to maneuvering between asteroids. The ship itself boasts average maneuverability for a ship its size, but individual repulsorlift projectors around the hull are used to repel smaller asteroids to minimize collisions, as well as assist in station-keeping when the mining laser is activated. The ship boasts a standard complement of two pilots, four mining engineers, a ship's engineer, and four gunners, who also double as loadmasters for the extracted minerals. The ship is equipped with four single laser cannons, which are principally used to destroy smaller asteroids and prevent them from colliding with the ship but can be used in a pinch to defend the ship against the pirates that frequently plague deepspace asteroid fields.

The ship's original raw material detection system was state of the art, capable of pinpointing deposits with great accuracy, but was very expensive and required significant maintenance. Most Y-8s manufactured nowadays utilize cheaper detection systems that only provide a general range and direction to deposits until the ship is much closer, but are much more robust and easy to maintain.