- Date
- 1 BBY
- Continuity
- Canon
- Place
- Citadel Tower and orbit, Scarif
Chronology note. Following Star Wars: Timelines, this pre-Yavin event is placed in 1 BBY. Older publications sometimes label it 0 BBY. About the dating convention →
The plans are found under a concealed project name
Inside Scarif's Citadel archive, Jyn identified the data set connected to her father's nickname for her, Stardust. She and Cassian extracted the relevant data cartridge. K-2SO was destroyed while protecting their escape from the archive, but his sacrifice bought time for the retrieval.
The shield gate must be opened
The ground team could not transmit through Scarif's planetary shield. Bodhi Rook helped coordinate communications to the Alliance fleet, and Rebel ships attacked the shield gate. The effort to bring down the barrier cost ships and many lives, including Bodhi and other volunteers.
A transmission succeeds as the station arrives
Jyn and Cassian climbed to the Citadel antenna and sent the schematics to the Rebel command ship Profundity. Director Krennic attempted to stop them. Tarkin ordered the Death Star to fire at Scarif, killing Krennic, Jyn, Cassian and many others while erasing major parts of the facility.
Anthropological assessment
The success depended on a chain of workers and specialists, not a single individual's courage. Archives, droid operators, pilots, radio equipment and ground fighters all helped move information through a system designed to prevent it from leaving.
Interactive evidence lab
Open a chronology check or switch perspectives. The result appears immediately below your selection.
Did Jyn and Cassian escape Scarif aboard the Tantive IV?
No. They transmitted the data but died on Scarif when the Death Star attacked.
Source-critical investigation · Scarif to Yavin
Why a copied file required a fleet battle
Jyn and Cassian find the project plans in the Scarif vault while ground personnel and Rebel ships attempt to create an escape route for the information.
The Databank identifies the plans as a data cartridge in the Structural Engineering node of Scarif's archive and notes that the information includes the flaw introduced into the reactor system. Finding the item under the project name Stardust is only one stage of its passage to the Alliance. The physical copy has to reach transmitting equipment, while the planet's shielding prevents a simple broadcast to the fleet. The data exists before the mission, but the institutions that protect it control who can retrieve, copy and interpret it.
In orbit, the Alliance works to open that barrier. The sacrifice of Rebel ships and their crews makes possible a temporary communications path, allowing the data to be transmitted to Admiral Raddus's flagship Profundity. The official account distinguishes this handoff from the later concealment of the plans aboard the Tantive IV. A historian should not describe Leia as physically present inside the Citadel tower or Jyn as escaping Scarif with the cartridge. Those claims would conflate successive custodians of the same information.
Information can survive the deaths of its recoverers when a network is prepared to receive and preserve it. That is what makes the chain of custody historically important. The archive, the transmitter, the Profundity, the Tantive IV and R2-D2 play different roles in the story. Each transfer offers another point at which the Empire might recover or destroy the secret. It would be misleading to treat the communication as one uninterrupted transmission directly from Jyn's hands into Luke Skywalker's starfighter. The mission succeeded in delivering evidence; most members of the team did not survive.
Test the historical record: Did Jyn and Cassian carry the retrieved plans away from Scarif aboard the Tantive IV?
Correction and insight: No. The plans were transmitted offworld and passed between vessels; Jyn and Cassian remained on Scarif.
Primary source: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Lucasfilm: Death Star Plans Databank. The Databank establishes narrated events; institutional interpretation is IDS analysis, not attributed dialogue.
Related records: tantive iv escapes scarif 1 → · rogue one lands on scarif 1 →
Sources and methods
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; StarWars.com Death Star Scientists and Death Star Plans databank. Explore the original background →. Interpretive analysis is distinguished from information shown in the story. Captions disclose when artwork is a character portrait rather than a depiction of the specific historical scene.
Canon · 1 BBY · Pre-Yavin history
The Scarif plans are transmitted
Documented historical sequence
Jyn located the Stardust file and worked with Cassian to deliver the Death Star data to a transmitter. K-2SO died defending the archive access route. Bodhi Rook enabled communications with the Alliance fleet, which received the signal before the team was destroyed on the surface.
Institutions, identity and material life
The operation required identifying a catalogue item, carrying data, keeping access secure, opening the shield path and receiving a transmission. Those tasks were performed by different people and machines. The Battle of Yavin, where the weakness was exploited, was a later event.
Why 1 BBY, rather than 0 BBY?
Recent Star Wars chronologies use the Battle of Yavin as the zero point. Rogue One and events immediately before that battle belong to 1 BBY rather than a separate 0 BBY year. The character or story illustration at the top provides context, not a photograph of the entire event.
Test the historical evidence
Two graded questions with corrections and explanations.