CT Why jump via hyperspace to the Death Star in ROTJ before the shields were down?

Just finished watching ROTJ for the first time in a while. Can’t figure out why the fleet would jump via hyperspace to the Death Star before confirming the shields were down? Why wasn’t their plan to wait until they received word that the shield was down before attacking?

 

It was dependent on timing. You can't rely on there being an open, static-free channel exactly when you need it to contact the fleet at the rendezvous point. Plus, you have to allow for the possibility of the Empire tapping into the signal, or jamming it, or even sending a false signal. Better to plan it out so that the shields would be under Rebel control by a specific time, so that they could take them down the second the fleet arrives. That gives the Empire the least amount of time to react and set up a defense.
It's a huge risk, but they figured the target was worth the gamble. But, both unfortunately and fortunately, things didn't work out as planned.

 

It was all about timing. The shield was supposed to be down by the time the fleet got there. Basically what @Kenneth Morgan just said now that I have read through his post.

 

That makes sense, I guess I just don’t understand why the crew on Endor would be unable to communicate with the fleet. Were open channels that hard to come by?

 

It's a covert op. You maintain radio silence until and unless you know the enemy won't or can't interfere or listen in.

 

Exactly. Their miscalculation was assuming the Death Star wasn’t operational.

And wasn’t the Empire jamming the comms?

Lando: “Wait, how can they be jamming us if they don’t know we’re coming...?”

That was also part of the reason. In case the Empire was jamming the comms, best to have the fleet arrive about the same time as the ground force.

 

The Rebel troops on Endor were supposed to turn the shield off at a specific time, which is why Han has them waiting until morning. The plan for the fleet was to come out of lightspeed right as the shields were turned off before the Empire had time to react.

 

Can anyone think of an example from PT or OT where Lucas has a character communicate out of or into hyperspace?

The holograms show up mostly in ESB, and those contexts are all stationary. Vader has to get out of the asteroid field to send a transmission. Other Star Destroyers are getting pummeled while in an asteroid belt.

PT, I recall Obi-Wan being stationary when he sends a transmission. One from water planet, one from termite planet (forget names).

 

Obviously this isn't from Lucas but I think it's interesting that in Rogue One they transmit text messages(i.e. not holograms) while in hyperspace with the implication that they can be intercepted and read by the Empire so they have to be careful what they say.

 

I recall "holograms in hyperspace" cropping up in TCW (which Lucas was involved with) now and again.

 

The shields would've probably only been down for a few minutes before they figured out there was probably an attack coming. So it had to be simultaneous in order to make the most of the surprise part of a surprise attack.

Finn and Rose also do it in TLJ when talking to Poe on their way back from Crait. Maybe not a hologram, but they still were communicating thru hyperspace.

 

"Hey, kid. Don't overthink it." (this is my poor attempt at a pretend Han quote)

 

FTR, I assume most will know this; but in my post just above I meant "on their way back from Canto Bight-not Crait.

 

Although TCW and the ST now debunk this, I had always assumed that when you were in hyperspace, you were essentially in another dimension and unable to communicate with the outside world. Did the old EU refer to hyperspace as "subspace".

I also wrongly assumed that you couldn't interact with "real space" while in subspace" with the exception of massive gravitational pulls. Only things like black holes, stars, and those ships that create gravity wells could effect you while in hyperspace.

I'm batting 0 for 2 at this point.

 

To be fair, the Legendsverse may have had hints in those directions until TCW debunked them. I think the earliest source to actually say "Even space dust affects you in hyperspace, by reducing your top speed" was the Lando Calrissian novels - but not every source may have taken the same tack.

Subspace exists in SW (Legends and newcanon) - but mostly in the context of communications - "subspace radio".