The Rogue One novelization, by Alexander Freed, reveals that Erso purposefully manipulated Krennic himself into signing off on the Death Star's infamous exhaust port, ensuring that the battle station had a weakness that could ultimately be used to destroy it. He used Krennic's own administrative weaknesses against him, ensuring Project Stardust kept running late. Krennic eventually tracked him down and forced Erso to resume his work, but Galen's loyalties were never with the Empire. He was the galaxy's sole expert on Kyber Crystals, and when Erso and his family fled, the whole project ground to a halt. Making matters worse, the shroud of secrecy surrounding the Death Star meant only the upper echelon of the Empire even knew where these resources were going, and supply networks had to be ridiculously complex.Īs revealed in both James Luceno's novel Catalyst and the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie, Galen Erso proved to be the Death Star's secret nemesis. That meant Project Stardust was constantly competing with other priorities. What's more, it did so at a time when the Empire was placing an ever-increasing demand on these resources, with Palpatine pushing a whole host of other experimental technologies such as Interdictor Cruisers, Imperial Star Destroyers, and TIE Defenders.

Dubbed 'Project Stardust,' the Death Star program demanded the bulk of an entire galaxy's resources. The first issue was that the Death Star was a project of unprecedented scale. Related: Star Wars Explains The Origin of Last Jedi's 'Holdo Maneuver' It hardly seems to be an example of Imperial efficiency - and, little by little, Star Wars tie-ins have explored all the problems. The super-weapon took over 20 years to complete - and, of course, was destroyed on the very day it was finally ready to be unveiled to the Galaxy.

And yet, when it comes to the Death Star nothing quite seemed to proceed as the Emperor had planned.

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