Death Star

The Death Star, known officially as the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, also known as the Death Star I, the First Death Star, Project Stardust internally, and simply the Ultimate Weapon in early development stages, was a moon-sized, deep-space mobile battle station constructed by the Galactic Empire. Designed to fire a single planet-destroying superlaser powered by massive kyber crystals, it was the pet project of the Emperor, Darth Vader, and its eventual commander Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin to expound the military philosophy of the aptly named Tarkin Doctrine.

Some of the earliest plans for a mobile, planet-destroying superweapon dated back millennia to the ancient Sith. Thousands of years later, before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the Geonosians, aligned with Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, designed the Ultimate Weapon in secret. After the fall of the Confederacy, construction of the Death Star was appropriated by the nascent Empire. It was built in orbit of Geonosis and supported by a complex logistical network of bases. The station, which took many years longer to complete than expected, was eventually moved from Geonosis to Scarif[18] in its final stages of construction.[19]

When the Alliance to Restore the Republic learned of its existence, operatives such as Jyn Erso were sent on a mission to steal the Death Star plans, which the Rebellion against the Empire knew was essential for its survival. These plans were ultimately transmitted to Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan aboard the Tantive IV, before her capture and demonstration of the weapon's capabilities on her home planet. After a daring rescue, Organa got the plans to the Rebel base on Yavin 4, from which the Alliance launched the Battle of Yavin with a small squadron of starfighters. The original station was destroyed by a shot fired by Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker with the aid of the Force.

The destruction of the Death Star weakened the Imperial Military, and Rebel assaults on Imperial installations prompted the construction of a second Death Star, both as a sign of defiance and technological terror. Despite this, it, like its predecessor, was destroyed with all hands lost. Decades later, the Empire's successor state, the First Order, constructed Starkiller Base, a much larger planet-destroying superweapon considered to be an evolution of the Death Star project of the Old Empire.