Death Star Plans

One shot into a two-meter vent. One flaw in a perfect sphere.

The Death Star plans are the stolen technical schematics for the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, also known as Project Stardust. These documents detail the construction and operation of a mobile space station over 100 kilometers in diameter, capable of destroying entire planets. The Rebel Alliance obtained these files to locate a critical vulnerability hidden within the station's design. This intelligence allowed the Rebellion to identify a ray-shielded particle exhaust vent that leads directly into the reactor core. Without this data, the Galactic Empire's reign of terror would have remained unchallenged by any conventional military force.

Quick Facts

Type: Technical Schematics
Primary function: Reveals critical structural weakness in DS-1 Battle Station
Key recipient: Princess Leia Organa; Rebel Alliance High Command
Fate of original: Used by Luke Skywalker to destroy the station at Yavin 4
Impact status: Catalyst for the Battle of Yavin

Lore & Background

The Death Star was designed with a fatal weakness concealed within its massive structure. While the station is hundreds of kilometers wide and shaped like a spherical moon, the schematics revealed a specific ray-shielded particle exhaust vent leading straight from the surface to the reactor core. This flaw was discovered by Rebel forces after analyzing the stolen data. The construction of this weapon involved immense secrecy; in the animated series and prequel films, it is shown that General Grievous acquired an enormous kyber crystal on Utapau to power the superlaser.

Later, under Orson Krennic's supervision, Galen Erso engineered the weapon, fusing kyber crystal shards to amplify energy into a beam powerful enough to destroy a planet. The plans were also connected to the Ghorman project in 2 BBY, where Imperial propaganda justified the mining of kalkite needed for reactor lenses. In Rogue One, the Death Star is referred to as Project Stardust before its true name is known to the Rebels.

Reader's Guide

To destroy the Death Star, a pilot must utilize the specific coordinates found in the stolen schematics. The target is a ray-shielded particle exhaust vent, measuring only two meters wide, which leads directly into the reactor core. Deflector shields protect the rest of the station, but this vent remains exposed. This tactic was successfully executed by Luke Skywalker during the assault on Yavin 4.

Did You Know?

The Death Star model was originally intended to be a perfect sphere, but a trench was added around the equator because two separate pieces of the physical model did not fit together.
The buzzing sound counting down to the superlaser firing comes from the Flash Gordon serials.
For Return of the Jedi, only the front side of the 137-centimeter (54 in) second Death Star model was completed; the image was flipped horizontally for the final film.
The grid plan animation shown during the Rebel briefing was an actual computer-graphics simulation developed by Larry Cuba at the University of Illinois Chicago.
In the series Andor, prisoners on Narkina 5 assembled fasteners revealed in a post-credits scene to be parts built for the superlaser dish.