Tractor beam / Legends A tractor beam was a projected force - field used by spaceports , planetary bases , space stations , and starships to effectively grasp and guide vessels to a safe designated landing . They could also be used to forcibly capture enemy ships . The first Death Star was equipped with 768 tractor beam generators , enabling it to constrain ships such as the " Millennium Falcon " with ease . Application and use . The most common use for a tractor beam was to help guide spacecraft into a safe landing at spaceports and docking bays , as well as to aid with the loading and unloading of cargo . Some ships also had personnel retrieval tractor beams enabling them to rescue extravehicular personnel . Warships , such as Star Destroyers , boasted powerful military - grade tractor beam projectors that could capture enemy ships . These high - powered force - fields could overpower their quarry ' s engines at times , to be maneuvered into a hangar or to hold them in position for boarding . The Imperials had a book called " Imperial Tractor Beam Primer " with instructions on how to operate tractor beams . Technical description . A tractor beam relied upon the inertia of the craft it was based upon as compared to the craft being affected . Ships with high inertia , typically meaning high mass , could affect smaller vessels with little strain on their own propulsion . Capital ships could tractor small freighters , for example , but if a freighter attempted to tractor a capital ship , it would actually affect the smaller freighter ' s trajectory . For two ships of roughly equal size , the attraction was equal , but could be affected by the relative speeds of the two vessels . Counter measures . There were several novel ways to escape from a tractor beam . Very small craft with powerful engines could out - maneuver tractor beams if the ship ' s pilot was more cunning than the tractor beam operator or targeting computer . A shroud was a counter - measure device fitted to some space vessels . It functioned to confuse and displace the tracking lock of a tractor beam , enabling a ship to escape the hold of the beam . The tractor beams aboard the Death Star took energy from the main reactor , giving them a constant flow of power and making it impossible for a vessel caught in it to escape . However , if one of the tractor beam ' s seven links to the reactor was severed , the projectors would be inactive and vessels would be allowed to escape , as Obi - Wan Kenobi was aware . Tractor beams could also be disrupted by a Stage Three torpedo . These instances , however , were rare in relation to the number of times tractor beams reliably captured small vessels . Another countermeasure was the Covert Shroud gambit . While difficult to perform and requiring extensive preparation , the Covert Shroud was highly effective . It involved using the shell of a larger ship to contain a smaller one , along with a relatively weak self - destruct mechanism . Once the larger ship was caught in a tractor beam , the pilot ( and any other crew ) would transfer to the smaller ship and activate the self - destruct . This would release the smaller ship and cause the tractor beam to catch the debris of the larger ship . The resulting delay would allow the smaller ship to escape to hyperspace before the tractor beam could be re - targeted . History . In 0 BBY , the Death Star ' s tractor beams captured the " Millennium Falcon " . This led to the duel between Darth Vader and Obi - Wan Kenobi , during which Kenobi was killed . In 9 ABY , Luke Skywalker was almost captured twice by the tractor beams of Grand Admiral Thrawn ' s flag ship the " Chimaera " . In the first instance , Luke fired a proton torpedo and at the very same instant reversed his sublight engines in an unorthodox manner . This caused the tractor targeting computer to lock onto the torpedo , destroying the tractor beam projector . In the second instance , Luke used a large freighter as a disguise with his X - wing hidden inside . After the freighter was locked by the tractor beam , he destroyed the outer hull of the ship and escaped in the shielded X - wing , while the operator uselessly tried to regain the lock through the debris field of metal . In orbit around Selonia , Han Solo found himself in a crippled Selonian cone ship with no propulsion , orbit decaying , rapidly descending into the atmosphere . Meanwhile , Leia Organa Solo and Mara Jade in the " Jade ' s Fire " looked on helplessly , unable to affect the cone ship ' s trajectory with a tractor beam because the ships were of roughly equal size and the cone ship was already accelerating toward the planet , thus it had the greater momentum . A tractor beam would only have pulled " both " vessels to their doom .