In news that you’re not even remotely surprised to hear, the White House has rejected a petition to build a real-life Death Star.
The petition came in through the White House’s “We the People” website, where they promised they would respond to all requests that came in with at least 25,000 signatures. The Death Star request met that requirement.
Shockingly, science and technology advisor Paul Shawcross did not see a way in which building a Star Wars-inspired Death Star was going to make fiscal or logical sense for the United States. The Washington Post explains:
Shawcross explained that at $850 quadrillion, the cost was simply too high in a time of tight budgets. Moreover “the administration does not support blowing up planets.” And anyway, “Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”
Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, went on to argue that the various space projects the White House has launched are at least as cool as a Death Star. (Debatable.)
Now, let’s get to work on genetically engineering a Wookie.
Sexy wind-blown snowy Chewbacca