The Great Hyperspace Rush was an onrush to map and claim the existing yet unknown hyperspace routes as the Galactic Republic expanded into the outer regions of the galaxy during the High Republic Era, which had yet to be well mapped.
On the order of Supreme Chancellors Orlen Mollo and Kyong Greylark, dozens of Galactic Republic Pathfinder teams were sent deep into the Outer Rim Territories as part of an effort to bring the galaxy together. In particular, these Republic Pathfinders hunted for new hyperspace routes and worked on establishing a reliable communications network for the Rim. The Jedi Order helped Republic Pathfinders in their efforts. However, many private parties also worked to uncover new hyperlanes due to the large amount of money to be made. As such, the Hyperspace Rush was underway in and around the year 383 BBY. The work of independent explorers was considered to be that of the rush, whereas the direct Republic-sponsored work could be dated back to 392 BBY. The search for hyperlanes continued into 382 BBY.
One of the Republic's Pathfinder teams charted lanes nearby the Outer Rim planet Sullust, leading to the discovery of the planet Tunguray. As the last of the Tungurary people were threatened by great deals of volcanic activity, the Pathfinders helped them evacuate to the Republic capital of Coruscant. Jedi Knight Gella Nattai led a Pathfinder team to Orvax, but their mission ended in disaster. The Graf family of hyperspace prospectors, who were responsible for both great works and great horrors, mapped out several routes and played a role in the rush that was still whispered about by the people of the Outer Rim and frontier many years later. The San Tekka clan, rivals of the Grafs, also spent lives while prospecting during the rush. According to Piralli, who was speaking around the time of the Battle of Jedha, the San Tekkas were the galaxy's most successful hyperspace prospectors at that time. The San Tekkas and Grafs would also sponsor the Hyperspace Chase.
Toward the end of the rush, the San Tekkas turned a tide of loss and pain into one of profit using the abilities of the hyperspace savant Mari San Tekka, whose abilities helped them map valuable new routes through areas like the Relgim Run and the Bitmus Cloud after the rush. During the rush, a hologram was taken of Mari writing out the locational code for a navigational beacon in the Berenge sector using numbered blocks. The Grafs eventually hired a information broker to find out the clan's secret and so learned about San Tekka, who then went missing before the rush finished upon being captured by the Ro family.
The Grafs kept some of the routes mapped during the rush private until the scientist Chancey Yarrow and others like her campaigned to have all routes made accessible by the Republic. However, over one hundred years later, the Graf family still kept some private routes using a number of their beacons that were still left over from the Great Hyperspace Rush. The beacons were encrypted and appeared only in the navigation computers of the Grafs. Yarrow mentioned the Great Hyperspace Rush when explaining San Tekka's abilities to Nan, a member of the Nihil, in 231 BBY.
In 232 BBY, Jedi Master Douglas Sunvale referenced the Great Hyperspace Rush while reassuring Dalnan Ambassador Janex that their planned journey through hyperspace aboard the Steady Wing would be safe despite the recent Great Hyperspace Disaster and ongoing Emergences.
The Hyperspace Rush was first mentioned in the 2021 middle grade novel The High Republic: A Test of Courage, written by Justina Ireland.
- Star Wars: The High Republic: Chronicles of the Jedi
- Star Wars: Timelines
- Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia