The extended STS-31 Lego set includes the Discovery spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Lego Group
Every time you lose your mind to go to a striking Hubble image, thanks the crew of the Discovery spacecraft that delivered the space telescope into orbit in 1990. Lego celebrates the groundbreaking mission with a 2,354 Discovery and Hubble set.
The new kit is a Lego version of the STS-31 Hubble deployment mission. STS stands for ‘space transport system’. The $ 200 (£ 170) kit is equipped for 18 years and older and will be launched in April.
Lego has partnered with NASA to design the set, with movable cargo doors on the shuttle. The Hubble model can fold up and fit in the shuttle, or the sunshades can be folded up to show the telescope in its full glory. Other details include a robotic arm, a command module that opens to show the flight deck and deployable landing gear.
Former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan helps Lego launch its Discovery and Hubble set.
Lego Group
“This dynamic duo is humanity’s greatest pursuit – the search for knowledge. Discovery and Hubble continue to inspire,” NASA tweeted Monday in response to Lego’s unveiling of the shuttle.
Former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan, one of five STS-31 crew members, joined Lego to launch the new kit.
“I was delighted to see the spacecraft in LEGO form, and was very impressed by the amount of intricate detail they were able to get from the module where we slept and ate, to what we saw the ‘milking stalls’ on the telescope, Sullivan said in a statement from Lego on Sunday.
Lego and NASA build on a history of plastic brick collaborations that the Apollo 11 moon lander, a Saturn V-rocket and the International Space Station.
The spacecraft remains one of NASA’s most iconic vehicles. Hubble, which has celebrated more than thirty years in space, is responsible for the most beautiful views of our cosmos ever seen. It has been decades since the two worked together in real life, but they are once again miniature together, an inspiring tribute to their shared legacy.