http://www.starwars.com/databank/location/deathstar/?id=eu
When the superlaser project hit a critical development roadblock, an enclave of top scientists were recruited or forcibly assigned to the Death Star development project. Tarkin maintained a top-secret laboratory code-named Maw Installation in the heart of one of the most inhospitable regions of the galaxy. There, scientists such as Qwi Xux, Tol Sivron and Bevel Lemelisk developed design concepts and engineering breakthroughs that would make the Death Star possible.
Once a functional test model proved that the technical refinements to the Death Star would work, Bevel Lemelisk took the plans from Maw Installation to the remote Outer Rim world of Despayre. There, prison labor mined the world for the necessary materials needed to finalize this weapon of terror. After long years of toil, during which many slaves died, the Death Star finally was completed. To mark the occasion, and to test its superlaser, Despayre became the first world targeted by the gargantuan weapon. The planet that was the Death Star's cradle was utterly obliterated.
Bitte. 
