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In the beginning of STAR WARS Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the Trade Federation supposedly blockades the planet of Naboo. Its main goal is to pressure its ruler into signing a treaty by cutting off all trade going on and off the planet. However, from an orbital mechanics standpoint, I'm not sure this blockade is even that effective. Wookiepedia image of the Naboo blockade First of all, the image is showing the Trade Federation ships blocking one part of the planet rather than the whole thing. Even if the ships weren't in geostationary orbit above a specific location, a trade ship could simply enter the planet from the other side without risk of getting shot. Since it is established that STAR WARS ships have hyperdrives, couldn't they just jump somewhere else and then approach from behind. If the blockade ships weren't geostationary, then the trade ships could just time their approach and make their Naboo insertion burn when the bad guys are supposed to be at the other side of the planet. Given how dense the blockade looked in the picture, it would have probably put the Trade Federation in debt to cover the whole planet rather than just one side. Besides, if Han Solo was alive at the time, he could just drop out of hyperspeed right as he passes the blockade (like he did in The Force Awakens) Second of all, just how long does it take for Trade Federation ships to get within firing range of approaching ships? Sure, the bad guys can deploy vulture droids, but even they must comply with the laws of physics when moving to intercept. Assuming the blockade is moving in a circular prograde orbit (geostationary or not), they would most likely have to adjust their orbital planes and wait quite a while before making their intercept burn. Not to mention that, if a trade ship enters Naboo's SOI or blasts off in RETROGRADE (or at least the opposite inclination of the blockade), the bad guys would either have to launch their intercept craft from the surface or waste a significant amount of delta-V to destroy the ship. They apparently also forgot to take polar orbits into account, which also deals with the first point I mentioned. The trade ship could be on the other side of the planet from the blockade before they breach the atmosphere. (For this diagram, let's assume Naboo is about the size of Earth for simplicity's sake) Anything I'm missing or overlooking here? Agree or disagree? Feel free to leave your questions/concerns/comments on this thread here. Have fun, and as always, may the Force be with you.