In a distant future, the prolonged war between humanity and the Gamilon has devastated Earth. Continuous bombardment of radioactive asteroids has made the planet’s atmosphere uninhabitable. To relieve this crisis, Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar offers the Earth Forces a device capable of completely neutralizing the radiation. For this mission, the space battleship Yamato is launched from the remains of its World War II predecessor on a 148,000‑light‑year journey. The Yamato’s crew has only one Earth year to travel to Iscandar and back, or humanity will perish.