DS-1 Orbital Battle Station/Legends

Death Star I "This station is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it."

- Admiral Motti

The first Death Star was a massive Imperial battlestation/superweapon with a diameter of 160 kilometers. The basic structure of the station was a sphere the size of a small moon, with a kilometer-wide trench containing docking bays running around its equator. It was the very incarnation of the Tarkin Doctrine.

Construction


The initial technical design of the Death Star was created by the Geonosians, based on the contract given by the Separatists, although it was known as the Ultimate Weapon. Poggle the Lesser, leader of the Geonosians, returned the top-secret design to Count Dooku to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Jedi just in time during the Battle of Geonosis. Dooku took the designs back to Coruscant and gave them to Darth Sidious, his dark master. These plans would later be fused with Wilhuff Tarkin and Raith Sienar's vision of an Expeditionary Battle Planetoid.

During the Clone Wars, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine sent the 501st Legion on a mission to Mygeeto where they were to collect an energy sample that would be used in his superlaser on the first Death Star.

Shortly afterwards Darth Sidious ordered the Death Star's construction after the Galactic Empire was formed, in order to secure his new-formed absolute power. Wilhuff Tarkin was appointed to mastermind the secret development project. Tarkin's creative work and thought had resulted in the realization of Death Star as the Empire's ultimate weapon.

To help build the superweapon and curry the Emperor's favor, Tarkin had Darth Vader lead an Imperial invasion of Kashyyyk, where they enslaved Wookiees for labor. Much of the needed funding came from appropriated funds originally earmarked for the Departments of System Exploration and Public Works.

However, the project nearly ended before it began. Although much of the technology of the Death Star was impressive, actually building it proved to be more difficult than anyone imagined. The project was dragged out over a nineteen year time period, with union disputes, and supply and design problems slowing the construction. Efforts were not helped by repeated&mdash;albeit usually unsuccessful&mdash;sabotage efforts.

Of particular concern was the technology required to create the massive superlaser, the very heart of the weapon. To this end, Tarkin brought together some of the most brilliant minds of the Galaxy (including Tol Sivron, Qwi Xux, and Bevel Lemelisk) and build a proof-of-concept model at Maw Installation. This model would eventually become known as the Death Star prototype.



Even before the Death Star became fully operational, its detention blocks began to fill with detainees. Political troublemakers, Rebel insurgents (who were beginning to organize), dangerous pirate forces, and even some survivors of the Royal Naboo Security Forces who had boldly tried to stop their Queen's assassination, as well as myriad other enemies of the Empire, were made to quietly "disappear" from public view within the enormous prisons of the incomplete battle station. The stormtroopers of the 501st Legion were among those assigned to protect the Death Star's interior. They were forced to put down a prison break that had somehow occurred within the station, led by a Jedi Padawan inmate. A number of prisoners were able to obtain a partial technical readout of the battlestation, which were beamed to a Rebel cell on Polis Massa. Shortly after this embarrassing debacle, the 501st were reassigned and moved off the station.

The missing plans
The history regarding the acquisition of the plans by the Rebel Alliance is a complex and convoluted one. Although three separate sets of schematics were stolen, only combined could they provide a thorough analysis of the space station's weaknesses.

Learning the truth
Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, perhaps while the Alliance Intelligence investigated the existence of a superweapon, was informed about it by a soldier she rescued on Ralltiir. The existence was justified by Intelligence on AX-235.

Contemporaneously, Rebel leader Garm Bel Iblis, with help from professional thief Moranda Savich, acquired a series of heavily encrypted datacards from an Imperial defector on Darkknell. It was only after sending these to the Alliance that the resistance discovered the exact purpose of Governor Tarkin's "pet project": to inspire fear through the destruction of worlds.

The combining of schematics
Following the Death Star Uprising, the aforementioned set of partial schematics was beamed to the Rebel base on Polis Massa. While it wasn't long before the Fighting 501st executed a swift raid on the compound, Bothan spies managed to transmit this first set off-base, presumably to their other asteroid base, AX-235. With one piece of the puzzle secure, the Alliance scrambled to secure more sets of plans, sets which would complete the picture.



It was at this time that a rumored Alliance cell on Kalakar VI had acquired the plans, and Lords Sidious and Vader investigated the matter personally. In the end, the effort was deemed a wild bantha chase, as the planet was devoid of any Rebel sympathizers at all; in truth, the mission was most likely a ruse orchestrated by the Emperor to test his pupil's worth against that of his predecessor.

Meanwhile, real efforts to secure the Death Star plans were underway. Rebel agent Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial Academy graduate, had used his combination of stealth and brute force to wrest a supplemental set of plans from the Empire during the Battle of Danuta. With two smaller examples of the schematics, the Rebels set about acquiring the last, largest set of plans.

Through the courageous actions of operative Bria Tharen and Red Hand Squadron, the Alliance engaged the enemy on the planet Toprawa. Operation Skyhook, as it was called, resulted in one of the biggest victories to date for the Rebels: the final set of plans would at last be in their control. Tharen, as one of her dying actions, bravely transmitted the plans to Tantive IV, a consular ship in orbit. Simultaneously on Toprawa, operative Havet Storm sent the Alliance plans for the superlaser as well. With these two additional bits in tow, the starship fled the system and intercepted the readouts from Katarn and AX-235, with Princess Leia herself spearheading the entire operation. By taking advantage of her diplomatic immunity, Leia hoped to seek out her father's friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and from there extrapolate a plan to analyze the schematics for a weakness in the superweapon's defenses.

But fate would take a different turn.

The events above and on Tatooine
When Darth Vader and the 501st led a raid aboard Tantive IV, no plans were to be found. At the last moment, Leia, realizing the importance of the plans' survival, placed them inside astromech droid R2-D2 who, with his companion C-3PO, made his way down to the surface of Tatooine. After being purchased by moisture farmer Owen Lars from some scavenging Jawas, the plucky little astro-droid knew he was getting close to finding Kenobi. Accompanied by Owen's step-nephew, Luke Skywalker, R2 found who he was looking for.

Battle of Yavin


Through a series of misadventures that took him from the recently-annihilated Alderaan to the very Death Star itself, Skywalker and his companions managed to rendezvous with the Rebel Alliance at their Yavin IV base. There, R2-D2 uploaded the data tapes and Alliance tactician Jan Dodonna found a weakness in the station: an unshielded thermal exhaust port that, if fired upon with a proton torpedo, would set off a chain reaction and annihilate the battlestation.

The ensuing Battle of Yavin destroyed the Death Star, just as it was positioned to destroy the newly discovered Rebel Base on Yavin's fourth moon. The Death Star was destroyed by Luke Skywalker in the trench run, who, with the help of the Force, successfully fired a proton torpedo into the exhaust shaft that led directly into the Death Star's main reactor.

The reactor exploded, destroying the battlestation and killing everyone still on board, including Grand Moff Tarkin. It would prove a decisive moment for the Rebellion, and gave young Skywalker his first spot in galactic history.

Specifications
The first Death Star, like its successor, was divided into two hemispheres, each subdivided into 12 bridge-controlled zones. The northern hemisphere held the main armament of the station, a fearsome superlaser. This weapon had the external appearance of a kilometers-wide parabolic bowl. When activated, eight separate beams were fired, focusing into a point to form a single hideously powerful superlaser beam. This superlaser was powerful enough to destroy even a shielded planet with one shot.



The Death Star was said to be comprised of eighty-four separate internal levels, stacked south to north. Each level was separated into 257 sub-levels. A nominal amount of sub levels were then to be stacked around the surface of the sphere, encompassing the inner stacked levels. Facilities included parks, shops, and other amenities for the Human crew, as well as numerous maintenance necessities such as trash compactors like Garbage Compactor 3263827 for maintenance purposes. The entire hull of the planetoid was covered in quadanium steel.

The battlestation also included two massive sublight engines in the midsection, as well as a formidable hyperdrive system. Driven by 123 individual generators, the Class 3 hyperdrive was fast enough to allow the Death Star to travel thousands of light years from Alderaan to Yavin IV in only a few hours.

Near the northern pole, a hundred meter tower was constructed and shielded to near impenetrability for the Emperor to use as personal quarters while on board. Operational command of the space station took place from the overbridge, which included the conference room.

At any given time, around 1.7 million Imperial employees (excluding droids) were aboard the battlestation.

According to some sources, the space station actually possessed another 5,000 turbolaser batteries, for a total of 15,000. It is possible that this statistic was merely an attempt to discourage possible attacks.

Behind the scenes



 * The West End Games RPG claimed that the first Death Star had a diameter of 120 kilometers. This figure apparently came from halving the volume of WEG's Death Star II size. Unfortunately, WEG actually used the Death Star I size for the Death Star II, making both incorrect. The majority of Expanded Universe material since then has simply repeated these figures.


 * The fact book Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections, detailed scaling of the station in the film, and statements by Grant McCune, Chief Model Maker for the movie, show that the first Death Star was actually 160 kilometers in diameter.


 * In the early production of the original movie, the hollow dish was designed to be on the equator, but then it was decided to be on the 'northern' hemisphere. However this old design can still be seen in the grid plan animations seen in the movie. This is because the animation was created before the prop designers decided to change it, leaving therefore a blooper. Explanations like that the plans represent an earlier version are invalid, since the original plan in Attack of the Clones shows the "later" form.


 * In the Revenge of the Sith DVD commentary, Lucas made an off-hand comment that the Death Star seen at the end was the first Death Star. He explained this was due to "union disputes and supply problems." This has been conflicted by other sources in the Star Wars canon, including Jedi Search and Champions of the Force. These sources explain that what is seen in Revenge of the Sith is a prototype Death Star to the one in A New Hope. This was retconned in The New Essential Chronology, where it is stated that the latter was a testbed prototype for the superlaser to be installed on the former. However, the Death Star shown at the end of Revenge of the Sith is in fact the first Death Star.


 * In Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope, the first Death Star is renamed the "Justice Star" to mark the fifth anniversary of the Rebel's defeat, and becomes a mobile seat of government for the newly-restored Imperial Senate. However, this is non-canon.