A mooring tower design on the Death Star I
A mooring tower was a specialized construction designed to accommodate the docking of larger spaceships, particularly those unable to land on a planetary surface.
Typically, mooring towers stood at heights of several hundred meters, allowing them to dock with capital ships as large as Star Destroyers. For smaller craft, such as shuttles, umbilical tubes provided docking capabilities.
During the era of the Galactic Republic, spaceport towers on Coruscant facilitated the docking of sizable spaceships within the Jedi Temple Precinct. The Venator-class Star Destroyer, for instance, featured large hangar bay doors on each side, enabling docking with mooring towers for resupply operations.
A comparable system was implemented in Terrarium City on Alderaan, where spires served as turbolift shafts for access to and from the enclosed city, and also for waste disposal.
The Galactic Emperor Palpatine utilized modified mooring towers on the Death Stars. These towers, equipped with extensive shield systems, served as his personal command centers during visits. The tower on the second Death Star was designated as the Emperor's Tower.
The Imperial Freight Complex on Byss represented a particularly large mooring tower. Freighter pilots transporting cargo to the planet frequently found themselves at this complex, undergoing thorough inspections and relaxing in one of the numerous cantinas located within the tower.
Ralph McQuarrie's artwork depicting structures on Alderaan, created for the production of the original film, was repurposed in the prequel Attack of the Clones to represent mooring towers on Coruscant. Furthermore, the original painting was reused in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, this time portraying transport spires on Alderaan.