Why Did the Death Star Have to Orbit Yavin? #starwars

Why didn’t the Death Star come out of hyperspace closer to Yavin Four? Because hyperspace doesn’t work quite like that. You don’t get to choose exactly where in a star system you come out of hyperspace. The safest way to travel at light speed is through the use of known and charted hyperspace lanes. Like Han explains earlier in the movie, precise calculations are needed to make sure a vessel doesn’t fly through a star or run into some other interstellar object. So the Imperials took the Death Star as close as they safely could to Yavin 4. It’s possible they could have attempted a microjump, basically a very fast and short trip through hyperspace, but even that kind of travel could send a ship across thousands of kilometers. It’s possible microjumping something as big as the Death Star would have been even more difficult. Grand Moff Tarkin probably thought it was just as easy to wait the thirty minutes to orbit Yavin.

[oClock]

Darth Vader: "This little maneuver will win us the battle before it even begins!"
*microjumps into the gas giant, killing everyone*
*Directed by George Lucas*

[DeamonChocobo]

Imagine them trying to come out closer and end up crashimg into Yavin Prime.

[Robert_Douglass]

_"You tried lightspeed skipping with a Death Star??!"_

[scottb]

That's why warp drive is the standard method of travel in Star Trek.

[foxgaming]

Imagine the death star ended up crashing into the gas planet and killing everyone in it. So rouge one wasted their lives to grab the plans to find the weakness only for the death star doing itself.

[MrSlosh]

Thousands of Kilometers.. in space. That's like a single footstep. Point still stands but that's a funny image of the Death Star just bunny hopping ten or so lengths of itself at a time.

[nonpartisangunowner]

So basically, hyperspace lanes are analogous to the East Australia Current in Finding Nemo.

[rustyshackleford]

Admiral Ozzel seemed to think differently.

[agathavincent]

I just want to know what it looks like with the death star in hyperspace. And how the frack how?

[hornet]

Remember this, a big car requires a big engine and big brakes! Something as big as the Death Star probably needed half a star sector to slow down at the hyperspace exit point. Also, if they micro-jumped, how much power would that take from the main reactor? Everything that is plugged into the reactor has a cost. I am sure no one used hair dryers while in hyperspace. And finally, someone on another post asked why didn't the Death Star destroy Yavin Prime and then Yavin 4? Two reasons, 1, to destroy a planet require a full solar day to recharge. 2, Destroying a gas giant might destroy the Death Star from massive blast wave. Orbiting the planet was the correct decision.

[braei]

It’s crazy because in real life, space is fucking big, that you wouldn’t really need any calculations. The ships are so small compared to space that it’s actually a statistical improbability to hit anything from just flying straight

[mattcernjavic]

Or perhaps it was done on purpose to strike fear into the planets inhabitants.

[ultramagnus]

I didn't know the Deathstar could move around like that 🤷🏽‍♂️

[king_kongda_savage]

Well, they actually can determine how close to a planet they can come out of hyperspace to, because that’s what caused the rebels to know that the Empire was about to invade Hoth base in the Empire strikes back, because they came out of space too close to planet

[TheFootballlegend]

Soo explain how Han, Chewie, and Finn were able to come out of Hyperspace, literally on top of Starkiller base…

Oh wait, Disney messed it up, AGAIN

[jimhouse]

Butt in The empire strikes back they said they came out of light speed too close to the planet to make sure they caught them by surprise.
So there's at least that to counter this argument

[DasaniDragon]

And that's why Star Trek's warp drive is better. We don't talk about Discovery's spore drive

[tooltroll]

Because orbital mechanics applies when the plot requires it? ;)

[ccccha]

But then at the start of the very next film, Darth chokes out an admiral for coming out of hyperspace too far from Hoth and giving the rebels time to react.

[calebp.walden]

*Deatn Star fires on the yivan 4 gas giant*
*yivan 4 is destroyed*
*moon of yivan 4 now in range*
*Death Star fires a second round and destroyed the moon*