I’m a millennial who was not even born when the spacecraft first flew, but as a child of the early 1980s I was fortunate enough to follow many of its missions until NASA retired from the Navy in 2011.
As a Canadian far from the launch site in Florida, of course, I first saw it fly on television. But I dreamed of seeing one launch (literally, as I remember having a fun dream of running in a golf cart nearby); Eventually I got the chance to see three launches in 2009 to 2010 (Discovery included), after graduating from university and getting a part-time job during the last recession, which enabled me to travel, though i count cents when i did. I was happy because the program retired a decade ago, on July 21, 2011.
Lego NASA Space Shuttle Discovery. $ 199 by Lego.com.
Build your own Hubble Space Telescope launch with Lego’s 2,354-piece NASA Space Shuttle Discovery set.
So you can imagine my nostalgia when I take a look at Lego’s latest set depicting the spacecraft Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope mission, STS-31, launched on April 24, 1990 – almost exactly 31 years ago. I do not remember that mission, but I do remember many of the astronaut trips to the telescope in recent decades; the first mission mainly addressed a faulty mirror that was accidentally launched on Hubble and obscured its view, while others replaced and upgraded the components.
The shuttle and Hubble were the definition of pieces of space technology for my generation. The shuttle deployed several satellites and helped build the International Space Station, while Hubble mapped cosmic expansion and showed us cool scenes that varied comet pieces striking in Jupiter to a big image of the galaxy Andromeda (M31) in high definition.
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An epic build
The NASA Space Shuttle Discovery set (MSRP $ 199.99 USD) releases Thursday (April 1) with 2,354 pieces to put together. It’s far from Lego’s first commuter device, and longtime Lego fans probably know that the company has a Hubble shuttle set for children a few years ago.
This set is firmly adapted for the adult crowd only on display. My construction with ‘frustration-free packaging’ (meaning the pieces and stickers were organized into 17 numbered bags and a few unlabeled bags) took me almost 11 hours to complete.
I’m moving pretty fast because I have experience of other recent large spaces like the International Space Station (864 pieces), the Apollo 11 Eagle lander (1,087 pieces) and the Apollo 11 Saturn V Rocket (1,969 pieces in honor of the launch year, 1969.) But your mileage may vary. Incredibly skilled Lego builders are likely to clock in less than ten hours, while the first beginners can spend a lot more time. But really, what is the rush? This is a set worth admiring.
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In the NASA style, I learned some “lessons” from the construction of this set. The first one is to have a very large surface area. My available desk space was about 1 meter by 0.6 meters; I would recommend a little bigger as organizing the pieces, the manual and the ever growing shuttle became more difficult as the hours went on. I finally made it, but it was a tight squeeze because the final set is 21 inches high, 54 inches long and 34 inches wide.
Then follow yourself, because parts of the set require a lot of goodies to put together, and you will want a lot of energy when the parts pop up. One example is the numerous reflective stickers that need to be glued exactly to parts of the boot doors, which take place at the back of a large bag of pieces where you can get tired anyway. You must also make sure that the base of the shuttle stays together while the boot is with the highest heavy construction; a piece or two fell out from the bottom during my construction, but I easily put it back together.
The charts that Lego sends in its beautiful manual – filled with fun facts about shuttle services – are mostly self-explanatory, though I have struggled in a few places. To true tired eyes, when I built the set over three long days for this story, it seemed like Lego had asked me to build two left wheels at one point. The Canadarm robotic arm also has a unique piece in the middle that is easy to mistake for other gray joints, so make sure I do not mistake my use of it in an antenna and scratch my head in 15 minutes. repeat until I did not notice the misused piece.
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However, this is small dispute with the otherwise incredible set. I got smaller nostalgic flashes when I built the cabin, complete with computers from the 1980s and the small space chairs. The rudder and valves clap easily with the engines on the shuttle frame. Lego was also careful to restrict the use of black-and-white pieces in places that would not appear on the final build. The use of yellow, blue, green and red made it easier to navigate through these sections quickly, because otherwise I would have been searching for the right piece for hours.
I like how different parts of the shuttle move when you assemble it, even though I was a klutz, I did not push the set too far in terms of its flexibility. That said, the wheels seem to fold in and out of the frame. The rudder and valves swing back and forth. Best of all, the boot doors open and close very smoothly. You can fit your completed Hubble in this empty space, or stack it inside or set it up on a stand; Lego gives you complete freedom to determine your display preferences.
Related: 10 Fun Facts About Discovery In Space
For those who might introduce themselves with the shuttle, I like how the set builds a bit of education into the building. I mentioned all the facts in the manual, but what I also love is how much the set shows in terms of the ability of the shuttle. If you look at it, it’s clearly designed to land like an airplane.
The relatively large size of the boot was one of Lego’s biggest design challenges to make this set work. But it’s worth making, because it shows one of the most important functions of the shuttle, which was to transport things up and down from space. The shuttle does not really show the actual capacity of this vehicle, which was usually seven people; However, eight astronauts were possible if you really pressed them in STS-61A style. But I can appreciate that the relative size of the cabin has made it difficult to fit in all the seats. As a small bonus, I like that you can see some seats and computers when you look through the glass windows at the front.
This set will take a lot of money and time to get started successfully, but if you can afford both of these things, it’s worth the investment. Commuter enthusiasts finally have a set that can be proud of along with that of the Apollo generation and the ISS, and the small detailed touches make this set a great tribute to Hubble’s enduring success.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.