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Originally posted by: ricarleite
how much did they know about the Death Star anyway? Leia had the plans hidden into the R2 unity, but they she know about the destructive power of it? Perhaps Bail Organa knew all along, and sent her to get those plans?
The first Death Star was constructed on the orbit of planet Despayre. It was a tropical world on the Outer Rim used as penal colony, to provide forced labor required to build this huge WMD
Leaving so many witnesses was not an option, so the Empire - as a role model of totalitarian regime - destroyed the planet along with all the prisoners on it. Yes, this was the operational test of the station's technical capabilities, but since that world was far away and insignificant, the Empire wanted to test the effect of using its superweapon to destroy a populated planet on Alderaan.
I can write this, because that information was de-classified
You can see this scene in a classic LEC PC game: X-Wing