Astrogation

Astrogation was the science of safely and reliably traversing space in a starship. Throughout galactic history, cartographers and scouts traveled between star systems in search of more reliable and safer hyperspace routes free of dangerous obstacles, advancing the science of astrogation. Traveling through hyperspace required a navigation computer to make precise calculations in order to follow these lanes and avoid crashing into "mass shadows," the gravitational wells surrounding massive celestial bodies such as planets. Often, ships had to navigate by way of hyperspace buoys or stop at waypoints to calculate another hyperspace vector.

Text and facts from the “Astrogation” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.