Millennium Falcon

"You know, that ship's saved my life quite a few times. She's the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy!"

- Lando Calrissian

The Millennium Falcon, originally known as YT-1300 492727ZED, was a Corellian YT-1300f light freighter used by the smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca during the Galactic Civil War. It was previously owned by Lando Calrissian, who lost it to Solo in a game of sabacc.

Its aged appearance belied numerous advanced modifications to boost the ship's speed, weapons and shield, including a hyperdrive engine among the fastest in the entire galaxy, enabling it to outrun Imperial Star Destroyers. It included sensor-proof smuggling compartments, which were used during the rescue of Princess Leia Organa to evade Imperial stormtroopers. Afterwards, the Millennium Falcon saw further action when Solo chose to join the Rebels during the Battle of Yavin, where it was able to sneak up on Darth Vader's TIE Advanced.

After Han was captured on Bespin, Lando took command of the Falcon once more to search for him, and later flew the ship at the Battle of Endor, where it entered the Death Star II and destroyed it from within. During this battle, the starship's circular military-grade sensor dish was knocked off as Calrissian piloted it through the Death Star's interior.

In addition to its renowned hyperdrive, which supposedly made the Falcon the "fastest ship in the galaxy," the ship was equipped with a backup hyperdrive. Compared to the primary engine, it was much slower and often took several weeks or months to reach the nearest star system. It also had a dejarik table featuring creatures found throughout the galaxy. At some point over the following thirty years, the sensor dish was replaced with the base rectangular model which was originally supplied with the ship.

Description
The Millennium Falcon was a YT-1300 light freighter of the YT-1300f variety. Its basic shape was defined by two convex saucers welded together, a pair of front-facing mandibles and an outrigger-style, side-mounted cockpit with transparisteel viewports. Apart from the shape of its chassis, the Falcon retained very little of her off-the-dock instrumentation. Because her successive owners either upgraded or downgraded every system according to their personal specifications, the freighter ended up becoming a unique ship.

Engines
The Millennium Falcon Girodyne SRB42 sublight engines were heavily modified through the addition of a SLAM overdrive that rerouted energy for acceleration bursts. Thanks to that, the ship could fly at a maxium speed of 1,050 kilometer per hour in atmosphere and 3,000 G in space. The stock hyperdrive of the YT-1300 series was replaced with a Isu-Sim SSP05. Although the regular SSP05 was a Class 1 hyperdrive, the one that equipped the Falcon had been jury-rigged "Vandangante style" into a Class 0.5 drive &mdash;twice as fast as most warships of the Galactic Empire.

Armament, hull and shields
The weaponry of the Millennium Falcon was normally suited for a much larger warship. It included two CEC AG-2G quad laser cannons (one ventral and one dorsal) with enhanced laser actuators and gas feeds, which gave them maximum range and damage. Between the forward mandibles, there were two Arakyd ST2 concussion missile tubes, each of which carried a four-missile magazine. Additionally, a Blastech Ax-108 "Ground Buzzer" blaster cannon mounted near the ventral boarding ramp allowed its crew to defend the ship while on the ground.

Duralloy plates salvaged from an Imperial cruiser afforded the Falcon a capital ship-class hull armor.

The ship had three deflector shield generators: the bow was protected from both lasers and concussion missiles by Torplex and Nordoxicon units, while a Kuat Drive Yards generator shielded the stern.

The Falcon combination of sublight speed and maneuverability was comparable to most of the starfighters fielded by the Rebellion and Empire, while its shielding, hyperdrive, and heavy weapons were on par with those typically found on capital ships. These traits made it an ideal choice for General Lando Calrissian's attack run within the bowels of the Death Star during the Battle of Endor. The Falcon only real combat weakness was its sheer size in comparison to starfighters. Although the ship had squeezed through many narrow spots in its history, it still lost the oversized sensor dish while trying to get through a particularly tight section of the Death Star's superstructure.

Other systems and equipments
The Falcon main source of power was a Quadex power core. Her main computer was made of three droid brains cannibalized from an R3-series astromech droid, a V-5 transport droid and a slicer droid. A pair of Gelieg 20m-cp Strobe/C-Beam Lamps, which flooded illumination outside the ship, were mounted on the tips of the front mandibles.

Early years
The YT-1300f light freighter designated unit YT 492727ZED was built in by the Corellian Engineering Corporation more than 90 years before the First Order–Resistance conflict. As was intended, she began her career as an intermodal tug pushing container in orbital freight yards. Just after the Battle of Coruscant she was seen docking in the Senate Office Building. At some point, the ship acquired the name Millennium Falcon, and came into the hands of a human gambler called Lando Calrissian, who started customizing her inside and out. However, Calrissian ended up betting his ship in a "Corellian Spike" game of sabacc, and he lost to the smuggler Han Solo. Under the captaincy of Solo, the Falcon was further customized.

A Fateful Trip
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."

- Leia Organa upon seeing the Millennium Falcon for the first time

The Millennium Falcon destiny as a tool for a small-time smuggling operation was changed when it was chartered by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker in Chalmun's Cantina for passage to Alderaan. When challenged by Obi-Wan about his ship's speed, Solo cited that the Falcon was capable of attaining 0.5 past lightspeed, and that it "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

The journey to Alderaan proved to be much more than a simple passenger flight. The Falcon was forced to blast its way out of Mos Eisley when a garrison of stormtroopers attacked the ship in an attempt to recover its cargo. It also narrowly avoided capture by a couple of Star Destroyers before making the jump to lightspeed.

The Falcon emerged from hyperspace into the remains of Alderaan. After chasing a single TIE fighter stranded in what appeared to be empty space, the Falcon was captured by one of the first Death Star's tractor beams and secured aboard the massive space station. Thanks to quick thinking by those aboard the Falcon, the ship was made to appear as if the crew had escaped soon after taking off from Tatooine. It was searched by stormtroopers and it was reported that there were no passengers on-board. Their search had managed to miss the crew who were hidden in a series of secret smuggling holds who then proceeded to kill a scanning crew before they could be detected by the scanner.

In a matter of hours, the Millennium Falcon had once again escaped the Imperial Navy, this time with the rescued Princess Leia Organa onboard. After a fleeing battle with Imperial fighters and a trip through hyperspace, the ship arrived at the secret Alliance base on Yavin 4. During the ship's stay on the battlestation, the Empire had planted a homing device onboard the Falcon which it used to pursue the Princess to this location. As the Rebels scrambled to organize a preemptive attack on the massive Death Star, Solo loaded his reward on board the Falcon and departed the moon. However, thanks to Chewbacca, its smuggler captain had a change of heart. Solo and his ship returned just in time to cover Luke Skywalker in his last-ditch effort to destroy the station and secure the safety of the Rebel Alliance. The ship's surprise attack destroyed Darth Vader's two wingmen and sent Vader himself spinning off into space, allowing Luke to successfully complete his attack and destroy the Death Star.

Escape from Hoth
"Punch it!"

- Han Solo to Chewbacca

Three years after the Battle of Yavin, the Falcon was undergoing repairs in the main hangar of the Rebel installation Echo Base as the Empire began its assault on Hoth. As the Alliance scrambled to escape the base, Solo and Chewbacca hurried to make the ship spaceworthy. Princess Leia was cut off from her transport by a tunnel cave-in and was forced to make her escape from Hoth on board the Falcon accompanied by Han, Chewbacca and C-3PO. Solo used the ship's uncanny maneuverability and his piloting skills to elude an Imperial Star Destroyer chasing them, and two more emerging from hyperspace. Han's maneuvers in the Falcon caused the two Star Destroyers approaching and the one pursuing to nearly collide with each other. The Falcon then attempted to make the jump into lightspeed, but was stopped short by an equipment malfunction.

Forced to take drastic measures to avoid capture, Solo made the decision to pilot the Falcon into a nearby asteroid field in an attempt to lose the Imperial pursuers. However, his repairs were cut short as he had unknowingly landed on a space slug. Escaping just in time, the Falcon was discovered by the Star Destroyer Avenger. They attempted to jump to lightspeed but once again, the hyperdrive was not fully repaired. Han then used the landing claw of the Falcon to attach to a blind spot on the conning tower of the Star Destroyer. Adhering to standard Imperial procedure, the Star Destroyers of Death Squadron ejected all scrap and garbage before entering hyperspace. Han then signaled Chewbacca to release the claw, allowing the Falcon to "float away with the rest of the garbage." Boba Fett, however, saw through this ruse, and waited behind in the Slave I, following the Falcon as it left the system.

After its close encounter with the Empire, the Falcon journeyed to Bespin's Cloud City, where Han's old acquaintance, Lando Calrissian, held the position of Baron Administrator. The Empire had arrived first, however, due to Boba Fett tailing the Falcon to Bespin. The crew of the Falcon were captured, tortured, and detained. Han was encased in carbonite and given to the bounty hunter Boba Fett. The remaining members of the crew, joined by Lando, escaped to the Falcon. After rescuing Luke, who was dangling from a weather vane on the underside of Cloud City, the ship left the planet and attempted to jump to lightspeed. The crew were unaware that the recently repaired hyperdrive had been disabled by Vader's men, and only a last minute patch by R2-D2 prevented the Falcon from falling into Imperial hands. Thanks to R2's efforts, the hyperdrive was activated and the Falcon managed to make the jump at the last second and escape.

Rescuing Han
During the following months, the Falcon served as home base to Leia, Luke, and Lando as they tracked Fett in an attempt to save Solo. After successfully rescuing Han, the Falcon rendezvoused with the Rebel Fleet, and prepared to assault the newest Death Star.

Battle of Endor
"Look, I want you to take her. I mean it, take her! You need all the help you can get; she's the fastest ship in the fleet!"

- Han Solo to Lando Calrissian

During the Battle of Endor, Lando and Sullustan copilot Nien Nunb flew the Falcon as Gold Leader. After the planetary shield protecting the second Death Star was destroyed, the Falcon and several Alliance fighters entered the battle station through a conduit port and headed towards the reactor core. Space was limited in the conduit tunnels leading to the core and the relatively large Falcon lost its sensor dish when the ship clipped a conduit in the tunnel. Lando was able to pilot the craft into the energy core housing the main reactor, fired upon the reactor, and headed for the exhaust port. The Falcon barely succeeded in outrunning the massive explosion that destroyed the powerful battlestation. Soon afterwards, the Imperial fleet retreated and the galaxy celebrated the death of the Emperor.

Reappearance
"The garbage will do!"

- Rey, being forced to board the Falcon during the escape from Jakku

At some point in the years following the Battle of Endor, the Falcon was stolen from Han Solo. It was in turn stolen several other times before sitting unused for several years in Niima Outpost on the junkyard planet Jakku, under the possession of junkboss Unkar Plutt. Rey, Finn, and BB-8 stole the vessel to escape an attack from the First Order on the outpost.

Returned ownership
"You tell him Han Solo just stole back the Millennium Falcon for good."

- Han Solo

While in space flight, the Falcon was picked up by Han Solo and Chewbacca's sensors, and they promptly locked down the Falcon's systems so they could recapture it using a freighter they were then using for their smuggling operations. Upon boarding their old vessel, Han and Chewie went about inspecting their ship and found Rey and Finn hiding, whom they assumed were the thieves that had stolen the Falcon. When Rey and Finn explained that they were going to take a droid named BB-8 to the Resistance as he had a map that would reveal Luke's location, Han and Chewie agreed to help them. On the way, when the Falcon began to malfunction, the mechanically savy Rey, who was sitting in the cockpit to the right of Han, made a modification to the ship by simply bypassing a faulty converter. Later, the Falcon crew arrived at the planet Takodana and met Maz Kanata.

Following the attack on Maz Kanata's castle, Starkiller Base prepared to fire on D'Qar, and the Resistance devised a plan to sneak onto the surface and lower the planetary shields so the fighters could attack the superweapon's weak spot. Using the Falcon, Han, Chewbacca, and Finn infiltrated the base, lowered the shields, and reunited with Rey, who was captured during a raid on Takodana by the First Order.

After the confrontation with Kylo Ren following the death of Han Solo, Chewbacca rescued Finn and Rey aboard the Falcon, managing to escape the planet as it exploded. After learning of Luke Skywalker's location, Rey, R2, and Chewbacca flew in the Falcon to Ahch-To, the distant planet where he had gone into self-exile.

Behind the scenes
It was speculated that the Falcon would make an appearance in Revenge of the Sith to further tie the prequel trilogy to the original trilogy, and the ship did indeed make a cameo in the movie. At the beginning of one shot closing in on a docking bay on Coruscant, a freighter is seen flying in to dock. George Lucas confirmed that it was the Millennium Falcon itself and not just another ship of the same class.

For Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Incredible Cross-Sections, the author Jason Fry intended for the book to include information about the freighter series being able to act as a cargo pusher, but was unable to get the image in time.

Non-canon appearances

 * Epic Yarns: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi
 * Jakku Spy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens