Hyperspace gate

The existence of hyperspace was known; however a mechanism to travel through hyperspace in ships without using the guidance available to the Rakatans continues to remain shrouded in mystery.

The Hyperspace gates served as a take-off/landing zone for ships before ships could be equipped with a Hyperspace drive. Each gate was equipped with the logic to calculate the orientation, and acceleration needed for a ship to travel from it's location to the location nearest the intended destination. Once in the drive, a ship could not, by itself, revert to real-space until it reached the target drive. As a corollary, a ship yanked out of hyperspace by a mass shadow could not re-enter hyperspace without the aid of a Gate; during the early centuries of the Gates ships were often known to go missing in transit. While most of these ships have been located, a few continue to remain missing even after millenia of hyperspace travel. These ships, known as the Intrepid Explorers, are sometimes reported by ships in the most unlikely locations; but the reports are usually not taken seriously. The uncertain nature of travel through the Gates fuelled the development of the Hyperspace drive. After the development of the Drive, the gates were relegated to the task of propelling mass bulk from system to system, but the continued uncertainty of shipment delivery eventually killed the hyperspace gates economically.