Jedi Temple Tower Hangars
General information
Created	c. 27 BBY[1]
Destroyed	19 BBY[2] c.137 ABY[3]
Location	Coruscant Jedi Temple[4]
Points of interest	Extendable launching platform[4] Air-traffic control station[4] Garages[4]
Usage
Era(s)	Rise of the Empire era[4] Rebellion era[5] New Republic era[5]
Affiliation	Jedi Order[4]

[Source]

Within each of the four Jedi Council spires of the Coruscant Jedi Temple was housed a three-story hangar facility, equipped with a garage, launching chamber, and air-traffic control pod. Each hangar bay was equipped with a retractable landing platform capable of extending out from the tower, permitting Jedi to take off in order to complete their missions without using public transport.^[4]

LayoutEdit

Located fifteen stories below the Council Chambers in each tower, the hangars occupied three levels of the Spires.^[6] On the main hangar level, the outer wall was lined with twenty garages where individual ships could be stored and sealed. Twenty-eight more ships could be stored directly in front of the small garages. The room was bisected by a walkway that led to the extendable platform. On either side were two platforms which could lower down into a larger work area.^[1]

Over the center of the room was a circular command center that coordinated flight patterns of the ships stored in the hangars, as well as controlling the hyperdrive docking rings that waited in Coruscant's orbit. The room was accessible from a turbolift that ran the height of the Tower.^[4]

HistoryEdit

Separatist CrisisEdit

Since the disbanding of the Army of Light and the Jedi Order's military might, the Knights relied on public transport to travel offworld in most cases.^[7] Aside from the many ground and air vehicles kept in the Main Temple Garage and other lower level hangars, the Jedi had few personal transports in their vehicle pool. However after the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY and the discovery of a possible reappearance of the Sith Order, the Jedi High Council ordered that a fleet of starfighters be built for the Order. As Kuat Drive Yards began designing a light interceptor for the Jedi, the Council began drawing up plans for a hangar to house the new starfighter fleet.^[1] Following the testing of Kuat's Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor the Order had the fleet transferred to the newly built hangars at the Temple, as well as the existing Kamparas Academy.^[8]

The hangars would serve the Order through the Separatist Crisis, with the new interceptors seeing action immediately. In 22 BBY Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi checked out an interceptor from the High Council Hangar and travelled to Kamino; a trip that uncovered the secreted Grand Army of the Republic. Following leads to Geonosis, Kenobi unknowingly was leading the Order to the flashpoint of the Clone Wars. Tracking Kenobi to the desert planet, the hangars were emptied as two hundred Jedi flew to battle.^[4]

The Clone WarsEdit

With the Clone Wars underway, the hangars were soon filled with the constant buzzing of the non-Jedi technicians and R2-series droids at their trade. Following the costly Mission to Queyta, Knight Kenobi crash-landed his interceptor on the platform outside of the hangar, causing minimal damage. Kenobi was rushed to the Halls of Healing while the wreckage of the interceptor was cleared away.^[9]

Late in the Clone Wars Grand Master Yoda undertook a secret mission to Vjun by way of Phindar. In order to disguise his departure the Order hired an actor, a Yoda impersonator, Palleus Chuff to disguise himself as the Grand Master and depart the Temple in a public event for Ithor. Inviting the press to the Temple, they stood in a cordoned area on the hangar landing platform as Chuff waddled to board a Seltaya-class courier, covering the real master's departure.^[10]

As the Order upgraded their fleet and brought in the Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor and Low Altitude Assault Transports, they began cycling out some of the older models. The First Knowledge Hangar came to hold mainly LAATs that the Jedi Council used for transport around Coruscant. In 19 BBY Masters Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin boarded a LAAT and departed for the Chancellor's Suite in the Republic Executive Building to arrest Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Shortly following their departure, Knight Anakin Skywalker stormed from the High Council Chamber to follow them. As he walked into the hangar he ran into Master Shaak Ti who was seated on the ground before the sealed hangar platform. In an attempt to calm the stressed Knight she raised a hand and offered warming energies through the Force, but Skywalker brushed past the Togruta and prepped a DC0052 speeder for use. Opening the platform door, he proceeded to join Windu in the fateful duel at the Republic Executive Building.^[11]

Order 66Edit

Master Ti soon left the hangar after securing the exterior doors and went to her chambers to meditate. Sensing the deaths of Windu and the other three masters, Ti prepped the Temple for battle. Late in the night, the 501st Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic were led into the Temple by Darth vader and began to execute Operation: Knightfall. Marching through the halls, the clone troopers stormed into the Tower Hangars and set up autoturrets to shoot down fleeing and attacking Jedi-operated vehicles. Vader joined them on his way to the Council Chambers and took down the remaining starfighters trying to escape.^[12]

Later that night, when Senator Bail Organa flew to the burning Temple, he landed on the extended High Council Hangar platform. Marching to the guards at the hangar mouth Organa demanded to be let in, lying and saying he had a meeting with the High Council. Commander CC-1119 denied the Senator access, raising his blaster to target Organa's face. Backing down, Organa turned to leave when Padawan Zett Jukassa charged from the hangar mouth and began cutting down troopers. After the commander fell, more troops charged cutting Jukassa down. Organa then ran to his speeder and launched from the complex with the intent on finding and helping other Jedi not at the Temple.^[11]

With the Great Jedi Purge in full swing, the Temple and its hangars were sealed, permitting no one to access it aside from Vader and his master Dark Lord of the Sith and Emperor Darth Sidious. The hangars were left unused; the extended landing pad of the First Knowledge Hangar had been severely damaged and drooped slightly.^[13]

Later YearsEdit

Surviving most of the Galactic Civil War, the Towers collapsed during the launch of the Lusankya from the surface of Coruscant. The rubble, strewn across the Temple Ziggurat, would be cleared away by the New Jedi Order when a small enclave was established by Master Luke Skywalker.^[14] The Temple would be re-inhabited briefly, but the Yuuzhan Vong War saw the utter ruin of the complex.^[15]

Following the War the newly formed Galactic Alliance's Chief of State, Cal Omas, ordered the donation of a new Temple as a show of thanks for the heroic Jedi that helped repel the Yuuzhan Vong. Using schematics acquired from the old Temple Archives, the Reconstruction Authority rebuilt the Temple the same as it had stood for generations.^[16] It is likely that the Tower Hangars were restored, though they would be concealed within the new tinted transparisteel pyramid that covered the Towers.

AppearancesEdit

• Jedi Apprentice: The Captive Temple (First appearance)
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones novel
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones junior novel
• Star Wars: Republic 53: Blast Radius
• Star Wars: Clone Wars
• Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "The Citadel"
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Wookiee Hunt"
• Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novel
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith comic
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith game
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith junior novel

SourcesEdit

• The Official Star Wars Fact File 107 (TEM1-2, Jedi Temple Hangar)
• The Art of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• Star Wars: Complete Locations
• "Order 66: Destroy All Jedi"—Star Wars Insider 87
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Complete Season Three
•  Jedi Temple hangar in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)

Notes and referencesEdit