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In December, a petition was posted to the White House website asking for the U.S. government to secure funding to build a real-life Death Star. The petition read:

“By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.”

It turns out many Americans - over 34,000 in fact - supported having a giant ball of doom floating in space, ready to demolish any potentially threatening alien world in a moment’s notice. Unfortunately, The White House thinks a real-life Death Star is wildly impractical especially since it “can be exploited by a one-man starship.”

In a message titled “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For,” Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget wrote the following fantastically nerdy response to the petition:

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

… MORE after the jump.

Well played, White House.