Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don’t have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke’s arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future!

The White House’s official response to the petition to build a Death Star.

It’s magnificent, start to end, both in the way it provides a positive emphasis on our real (and often not sufficiently lauded) space program’s accomplishments, as well as the way it clearly shares the petition’s affection for the Star Wars universe.

Also among the specific reasons given for not building a Death Star: “The Administration does not support blowing up planets.”

Read the whole thing. It’ll make your day.