Star Wars: Blogs | Keeper of the Holocron's Blog

Keeper of the Holocron's Blog

by: Leland Y Chee

date posted: Jun 22, 2005 1:02 PM | updated: Oct 17, 2006 9:44 AM

Death Star timeline

During the battle, Rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire's
ultimate weapon, the DEATH
STAR, an armored space
station with enough power to
destroy an entire planet.

The Death Star was first introduced during the opening crawl of Star Wars. Since then, its ever-growing backstory has been expounded upon by numerous authors and artists throughout the films, books and games.

Here's a quick look at the Death Star's complex history so far (note: this timeline will be updated as new information comes to light):

-29: Raith Sienar tells Tarkin about "Expeditionary Battle Planetoid" concept [RP]
< -22: Geonosians contracted to further develop the plans [ROTSVD]
< -22:501st Legion obtains experimental Mygeetan power source [SWB2]
-22: Poggle the Lesser delivers schematics to Count Dooku [AOTC]
-22: Dooku delivers the plans to Darth Sidious [AOTC]
~ -21: Darth Sidious orders Geonosians to begin construction [ROTSVD]
-19: Clone Wars end after the Confederacy leaders are killed on Mustafar. [ROTS]
-19: Separatist holdings are turned over to the Empire. [ROTS]
-19: Palpatine, Tarkin, and Vader oversee construction for the Empire [ROTS]
-3: Work on the Death Star project conducted at Maw Installation. [JS]
< 0.2 Mrlssi Dee Savyest and others work on equipment that goes into the Death Star [XWPA]
~-0.2: 501st quells a Rebel prison break [SWB2]
~ -0.1: Death Star becomes operational
~ -0.1: Death Star destroys Despayre [MTSB]
-0.1: Kyle Katarn steals a set of plans from the planet Danuta [DF][DFSE]
-0.1: Havet Storm steals plans for the superlaser [TLJAGB]
-0.05: Operation Skyhook [SWR][XWCD]
-0.05: Portion of plans intercepted en route to Toprawa [SWR][XWCD]
-0.05: Bria Tharen/Red Hand Squadron take over Toprawa relay station [RD]
-0.05: Tantive IV breaks Toprawa blockade [SWR]
-0.05: Relay station transmits combined Death Star plans to Tantive IV [SWR][XWCD]
0: Commander Akobi assigned to the Death Star [SWE13]
0: Death Star destroys Alderaan [SW]
0: Death Star destroyed by Luke Skywalker at the Battle of Yavin [SW]
0: Hammertong Project involving the transport of the Death Star II's superlaser [TFTC]
~ 3 Destruction of the Tarkin superweapon. [MCSW]
~ 3.1: Corwin Shelvay mission to Drinba IV to disable superlaser [WC.COM][IVBG]
3.2 Alliance receives Bothan datatapes obtained by Tay Vanis. [MCSW]
3.5: Bothan members of Blue Squadron attack the Suprosa [SOTE][SOTEC]
3.5: Information obtained by Bothans transferred to Alliance High Command [SOTE][RJ]
~3.5: Alliance steals the shuttle Tydirium [XWA][FC][RS2]
4: Death Star II used at the Battle of Endor [RJ]
4: Death Star II destroyed [RJ]
4.3: Death Star III? [WDST]
12.1: Durga the Hutt's Darksaber Project reconstructs superlaser [DS]

SOURCES
AOTC: Attack of the Clones (2002)
DF: Dark Forces (1995)
DFSE: Dark Forces I: Soldier for the Empire (1997)
DS: Darksaber (1995)
DSTC: Death Star Technical Companion (1991)
EGV: Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (1996)
EGWT2: The New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology (2004)
FC: Force Commander (2000)
IVBG: Star Wars Interactive Video Board Game
JS: Jedi Search (1994)
MCSW: Marvel Star Wars comics (1977)
MTSB: Movie Trilogy Sourcebook (1993)
RD: Rebel Dawn (1998)
RJ: Return of the Jedi (1983)
ROTS: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
ROTSVD: Revenge of the Sith Visual Dictionary (2005)
RP: Rogue Planet (2000)
RS2: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (2001)
SOTE: Shadows of the Empire (1996)
SOTEC: Shadows of the Empire comic (1996)
SW: Star Wars - A New Hope (1977)
SWB2: Star Wars Battlefront II
SWCS: Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections (1998)
SWE13: Empire #13: What Sin Loyaty? (2003)
SWR: Star Wars Radio Drama (1994)
SWTJ: Star Wars Technical Journal (1995)
TFNR: Tales from the New Republic (1999)
TFTC: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (1995)
TLJAGB: The Lost Jedi Adventure Game Books (1993)
WC.COM: Wizards of the Coast Web Site (2000)
WDST: Walt Disney Star Tours attraction (1987)
XWA: X-Wing Alliance (1999)
XWCD: X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM (1992)
XWPA: Rogue Squadron: Phantom Affair (1996)

UPCOMING
Lethal Alliance video game (Dec 2006)
Untitled 2007 Death Star hardcover by Steve Perry and Michael Reaves

For further discussion: The Death Star and Continuity Issues thread.

http://blogs.starwars.com/holocron/7

Click here to hide comments for this entry

Halagad
Only Sith Deal In Absolutes!

date Posted: Jun 22, 2005 4:06 PM

Great blog Leland! We could maybe add the construction of the Tarkin superlaser platform from the Marvel Comics. Also, there are currently two versions of the recovery of the Death Star II plans: recovery by the Bothans, proclaimed by Borsk in the Thrawn Trilogy (called "The Martyrs" in Isard's Revenge) and seen in Shadows of the Empire, and then the humans from the Bothan system, Tay Vanis and Yom Argo, who are depicted as actually delivering the plans to Luke and Leia in the last Marvel Comics storyline before the release of Return of the Jedi. These guys were referenced relatively recently in 2000 in the Marvel Aliens feature in Gamer #1.

	Leland Y Chee Keeper of the Holocron's Blog
date Posted: Jun 22, 2005 6:11 PM As far as I can tell, the Bothan tapes retrieved from Tay Vanis haven't directly been tied to the Death Star II; just an "Imperial superweapon." For now, I'm going to leave it off my Death Star timeline. Shadows is the "official" reference for the Bothans that Mon Mothma mentions in Return of the Jedi.

Rainbow Droideka
Aren't you a little short for an egg?

date Posted: Jun 23, 2005 3:05 AM

Cool timeline, Tasty, that helps to consolidate a lot of the stuff out there. I guess the biggest question really is why it took 20+ years to build the first Death Star, and only a few short years to build the second. I think a lot of people also are looking for solid answers on how the work of the various Maw scientists fits into the big scheme. My only other comment is that I hope the question mark remains on the "Death Star III" entry - I know you've said in the past that you favor things making sense over ridiculous fixes for tiny inconsistencies, and this situation seems to me to be the textbook example of such a situation.

	Leland Y Chee Keeper of the Holocron's Blog
date Posted: Jun 23, 2005 1:33 PM Part of the long construction time is that the design and testing for the first Death Star still had to be hammered out as construction was proceeding. It's also possible that there are other unforseen complications. I don't have a start date for construction of the Death Star II. You may have noticed that I added the Tarkin and Tay Vanis to the timeline.

Korpil
A Verpine's blog

date Posted: Jun 23, 2005 2:36 PM

Here's my take on building the Death Stars. I recently saw a documentary about the new Airbus project: the A380, which is to be the largest passenger airplane ever made.

They started the project almost 14 years ago (in july 1991), but only this year they were able to test and flight the first prototypes...

Yet, when the production phase starts, Airbus will be able to produce one plane each week.

So it makes sense that once you got your first operational Death Star, few corrections and modifications were needed to produce Death Star II.

hotrodjinn9
A Tax Blog

date Posted: Jun 24, 2005 5:13 PM

Other things that may come as a comparable from real life timelines to SW:

1- Boston's Big Dig (Most widely known delayed project)
2- Mexico City's urban main circuit second floors.
3- China's and worlds biggest dam (don't remember the name)

If this project's with Earth and XX/XXI century's technology are real complicated and have a long time to construct, then you can compare with the Death Star.

One side comment, remember Death Star I was 1976/77 technology, and DSII was 1982/83, so that's a big leap forward.

	Admiral Xizor
date Posted: Jun 25, 2005 2:13 PM Where was Project Hammertong referred to in A New Hope? I don't remember that at all...

	Leland Y Chee Keeper of the Holocron's Blog
date Posted: Jun 26, 2005 12:53 AM Hammertong is from Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. Thanks for the catch.

General Tarfful
The Kachirho Daily Journal

date Posted: Jun 28, 2005 8:55 PM

Other things that may come as a comparable from real life timelines to SW:

1- Boston's Big Dig (Most widely known delayed project)

Heh, indeed... as a Massachusettsian I've been hearing plenty about that... and then, after all that time and money spent making it, it has leaks. Come on, you'd think they'd get it right after so long.

And hey, what does that remind you of? Hmm, how about a pesky little exhaust port that somehow managed to sneak through all the Empire's QC?

	O.J.
date Posted: Jun 29, 2005 9:32 AM ~ -0.1: Death Star destroys Despayre [MTSB] What does MTSB refer to? You left it off of your source list.

	Leland Y Chee Keeper of the Holocron's Blog
date Posted: Jun 29, 2005 1:54 PM Movie Trilogy Sourcebook from West End Games for the roleplaying game. 1993.

	yoda�s waiter Not if anything to say about it I have!
date Posted: Jun 30, 2005 6:19 AM So wait. Who should the idea of the Death Star be credited too? Tarkin, the Geonosians or Palpatine/Sidious, Rath Sienar?

	Leland Y Chee Keeper of the Holocron's Blog
date Posted: Jun 30, 2005 2:26 PM I guess it depends on who's writing the history books. The truth of the matter is that there are dozens of individuals who had a significant hand in the Death Star's creation, not any one person.

	General Tarfful The Kachirho Daily Journal
date Posted: Jun 30, 2005 2:54 PM Congrats on your custom avatar, Tasty!

	yoda�s waiter Not if anything to say about it I have!
date Posted: Jul 01, 2005 8:19 AM I guess it depends on who's writing the history books. The truth of the matter is that there are dozens of individuals who had a significant hand in the Death Star's creation, not any one person. Ah. Ok. Because in those books it says that the DS was Tarkins brainchild but I guess that must've changed since AOTC...

	Leland Y Chee Keeper of the Holocron's Blog
date Posted: Jul 01, 2005 5:04 PM In the novel Rogue Planet, we learn that Tarkin more or less stole the idea from Raith Sienar which explains why Sienar never got credit.

	General Tarfful The Kachirho Daily Journal
date Posted: Jul 05, 2005 9:41 AM In the novel Rogue Planet, we learn that Tarkin more or less stole the idea from Raith Sienar which explains why Sienar never got credit. Also, Sienar kind of disowned it, which explains why he never claimed credit.

	bluejedi89 A Cup of Jawa Juice
date Posted: Jul 10, 2005 3:46 PM I have the Darksaber book but have never gotten around to reading it. What happened to "project Darksaber" after "12.1: Durga the Hutt's Darksaber Project reconstructs superlaser [DS]"? PS Love your blogs, Tasty, excellent quick places to get info.

ithekro

date Posted: Jul 23, 2005 6:21 PM

Durga the Hutt had what could be called an oops. As far as I know there is no more mention of new Death Star or Superlaser projects after Darksaber, though the Super Star Destroyers of Dark Empire have what would be called Spinal Superlasers....not powerful enough to crack a planet apart.....just fry the entire crust, and punch a hole in it and let the mantel and core ooze out, effectly killing the world anyway, even if it doesn't blow up like Alderaan.

	AdmiralD'orl001
date Posted: Feb 12, 2007 12:40 AM I'm surprised that no one questioned this a few years earlier! Any reason why 501st stealing the Mygeetan power source is listed before the Clone Wars started? Seeing as Ki-Adi-Mundi was supposedly an played a part in this heist (though he didn't realize the truth behind it) there should be no way it could be before the Republic knew about the clones.

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