Death Star
Although details, such as the superlaser's location, shifted between different concept models during production of "Star Wars", the notion of the Death Star being a large, spherical space station over 100 kilometers in diameter was consistent in all of them. George Lucas gave the original task of designing a "Death Star" to concept artist and spaceship modeler Colin Cantwell, who had collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the 1968 film "". In a 2016 interview, Cantwell related that "I didn't originally plan for the Death Star to have a trench, but when I was working with the mold, I noticed the two halves had shrunk at the point where they met across the middle." As it "would have taken a week of work just to fill and sand and refill this depression," Cantwell suggested a trench to Lucas to save the labor. Lucas liked the idea, and the Death Star model was created by John Stears. The buzzing sound counting down to the Death Star firing its superlaser comes from the "Flash Gordon" serials. Portraying an incomplete yet powerful space station posed a problem for Industrial Light & Magic's modelmakers for "Return of the Jedi". Only the front side of the 137-centimeter model was completed, and the image was flipped horizontally for the final film. Both Death Stars were depicted by a combination of complete and sectional models and matte paintings.
Death Star
The anthology film "Rogue One" focuses on a band of Rebels stealing the plans for the first Death Star prior to the events of "A New Hope". The Death Star project was overseen by Orson Krennic, the Director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Imperial Military. Under Krennic's supervision, the project was beset by constant delays, and he forcibly recruited weapons designer Galen Erso (the father of Jyn Erso, the movie's main protagonist) to complete the design; nevertheless, it was another fifteen years before the Death Star was operational. The Death Star's primary laser was powered by kyber crystals mined from the desert moon of Jedha, and is first used to destroy Jedha City both as a response to a violent insurgency on the planet, and as a display of the Death Star's operational status to restore the Empire's confidence in the project. Grand Moff Tarkin assumes control over the Death Star while Krennic investigates security breaches in the design project. It is subsequently revealed that Galen discreetly sabotaged the design by building a vulnerability into the reactor. This is the same vulnerability that Luke Skywalker takes advantage of during the events of "A New Hope". After the Death Star plans are stolen from the Scarif vault, Tarkin fires the Death Star laser on the base killing Krennic, as well as Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor.