Despayre Despayre , originally Horuz , was a penal / slave world in the Horuz system and the place where the first Death Star was constructed and completed , after being relocated many times to avoid Rebel saboteurs and Intelligence . History . Early history . The planet was first colonized between 15 , 000 BBY to 8000 BBY , sometime between the Kymoodon Era and Rianitus Period . Construction of the First Death Star . The shipyard that created the Galactic Empire ' s ultimate weapon became the center of the Imperial war machine when construction was moved from Geonosis to Despayre . Components from almost all major corporations of the galaxy were sent to this planet , and labor was found on the penal and slave colonies below . Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin visited the system on many occasions to oversee the construction , bringing with him Imperial enslaved Wookiees from Kashyyyk of the Kashyyyk system , shortly after the Empire ' s formation . Despayre ' s death knell was sounded with the arrival of Darth Vader . Dispatched by Emperor Palpatine to accelerate the construction process , Vader personally oversaw dozens of executions to push forward the process . The Imperial Navy severely restricted starship traffic in the Despayre system : only official military vessels , prison ships and armed commercial freighters from corporations supplying starships components could enter . Separate governing administrations operated the surface penal colony and orbital stardock facilities . From the moment the decision was made to begin construction in the planet ' s upper orbit , there would have been no scenario in which the Imperial convict labor force would have been spared a terrible end . When the Death Star was completed , the construction process left behind a shroud of industrial debris in orbit , making passage to and from the surface virtually impossible . This was anticipated and provided for ; Despayre was intended to be declared off - limits , and the prisoners and slaves would have been expected to fend for themselves , either until their supplies ran out or until the jungle came in . But the convicts never did endure this slow form of death ; after repeated and costly mistakes , Tarkin concluded that they made for a terrible work force . They were not trained , they were physically challenged , and they were mentally unstable . Rather than hope for an improvement , Tarkin decided to cut his losses and ordered the immediate execution of the entire work crew . From then on , mostly Wookiee conscripts were used in the construction . After the Corellian Treaty was signed in 2 BBY , the Empire repeatedly relocated the Death Star from Despayre to at least five different worlds , which included Coruscant , Fondor , Ryloth , Eriadu and Geonosis , to avoid Rebel sabotage or uncovered information . The Destruction of Despayre . Despayre itself would also be , in a sense , " executed . " Tarkin decided to celebrate the completion of his battle station by testing its superlaser weapon on Despayre , destroying the planet , shortly before they destroyed Alderaan . One of his close advisers and officers , Admiral Conan Antonio Motti , attempted to point out the potential political fallout from such an action . Tarkin refused to hear it ; to him , the population of the planet consisted of nothing more than numerous Imperial alien slaves and condemned criminals sentenced for life , none of whom would ever be returning to civilization , and all of whom constituted an unnecessary burden on Imperial troops and resources . In any case , he would not take his station into battle without knowing what his biggest weapon would do when he needed to use it . At the time Tarkin gave the order , the superlaser was not yet functioning at full power ; in fact , it was at a mere one third of its total projected power . But the first shot was still sufficient to kill every living thing on the planet . The atmosphere ignited and created a chain reaction that damaged and sterilized the entire planetary surface . Physical surface damage was extreme ; groundquakes and volcanic eruptions joined with great waves caused by the shifting of tectonic plates on the ocean floor . The second shot , fired an hour and fifteen minutes after the first to allow the capacitors time to recharge , caused massive kilometers - wide cracks in the planet itself . The molten core rushed to the surface through a myriad of new volcanoes . While the weapon spent another hour and nineteen minutes recharging for a third volley , the chain reaction continued , leaving the planet little more than a cinder . The third and final shot blew that cinder into billions of fragments . The gravitational alignments within the Horuz system itself shifted as the source of one of the gravity wells , the planet Despayre , was erased , which presumably consumed its sole moon Haroon in the process . The Rebellion , having just learned of the Death Star ' s location from the captured frigate " Priam " , dispatched corvette group " Ethar " , comprising two CR90 corvettes , Ethar 1 and 2 , to investigate . The Alliance ships arrived to find only the remnants of the former slave planet and a trap set by Imperial forces . Both corvettes were captured by the Empire . Biosphere . The surface of Despayre consisted of one large continent and one considerably larger ocean body . The landmass was mostly covered in jungle , and the planet was home to an abundance of species . The planet had a low gravity of less than 0 . 75 standard gravity and an erratic orbit which created tidal forces that set the conditions for harsh seasonal gales . This in turn influenced the evolution of life on the planet , creating a harsh ecological system . These species presumably became extinct when the planet was destroyed . Flora . The jungle flora responded to this environmental challenge by producing large , close - knit growths that stabbed roots deep into the ground , creating completely impenetrable patches of rain forest in some places . The majority of plant life on Despayre had poisonous thorns , barbs or burrs . Specific known species include : Fauna . The animal life on Despayre had adapted by becoming sinuous and serpentine , as this allowed better mobility through the tightly interwoven vines and boles . Species representative of the animal life on Despayre include poisonous crustaceans , small winged lizards and a manta - like creature that had an interesting life cycle that began in the ocean and ended in the jungle . Generally , most creatures had fangs and were venomous in some way . Specific known species include : Behind the scenes . The " Rebellion Era Sourcebook " erroneously refers to Despayre as the planet " Horuz , " a simple conflation of the system ' s name . According to Leland Chee , early drafts of " " had the Death Star being built over a planet ; had this appeared in the final draft , the world would have been identified as Despayre . The planet remains erroneously intact in the PC game " " , which begins the day after the Battle of Yavin .