Lightstations were a series of space stations equipped with navigation beacons in the Roon system. Prior to the establishment of the Manda-Roon Merchant Route by Mungo Baobab, these orbital platforms were few in number. Bisad Koong, governor of Roon's Tawntoom province in the early years of the Galactic Empire, utilized a lightstation as an orbital base of operations.
Baobab apparently felt that the existing lightstations were an appropriate method to mark the rediscovered trade lane, and merely multiplied them in number to provide a more easily navigable path. Before the advent of the Baobab Merchant Fleet lightstation system, travelers had to follow close behind the rainbow comet, a body that only traveled through the Cloak of the Sith and into the Roon system once a year.
Although most lightstations were autonomous, one, the Umboo lightstation (named after Roon's Umboo province), was manned by an old Human male named Noop Yeldarb, who had maintained the station since its inception. It was Noop's duty, along with the , to ensure that the lightstations were not diverted for nefarious purposes - early in its establishment, the system was plagued by pirates who would alter the lightstations' positions, forcing prey into an easy ambush.