Lego has a new 2354 piece NASA space shuttle set, and it’s awesome
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The latest official NASA Lego set is this massive space shuttle model Discovery on STS-31 mission.
Jonathan gitlin
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There are 17 bags of Lego bricks. Well, technically there are 19, as there are two bags labeled 2 and one unlabeled bag that has softer parts that would otherwise be scratched during transport.
Jonathan gitlin
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A large instruction book with lots of facts about the shuttle. And luckily some stickers. My best advice was going to explain how much easier it is to use the Lego iPad instruction app, but I built Discovery on the day of its release, and it was obviously too new to appear in the app.
Jonathan gitlin
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If I was really crazy (or had a lot of spare time) I could dump all 17 bags in one pile and build from there. Instead, I sort the bags a bit.
Jonathan gitlin
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It is the heart of the Hubble Space Telescope, which is an example of Studs Not On Top, or SNOT.
Jonathan gitlin
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The finished Hubble model on its stand.
Jonathan gitlin
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So far so conventional – this type of build should be familiar to you even if you haven’t built a Lego spaceship in decades.
Jonathan gitlin
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Now we are starting to look like an orbiter.
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A closer look at the wing bracing.
Jonathan gitlin
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Lego designers intentionally include brightly colored pieces that will be covered in the final build.
Jonathan gitlin
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There are always a few extra parts included. And did you know that Lego is the world’s largest tire manufacturer?
Jonathan gitlin
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I had already stopped and said “this is so cool” at least twice at this point.
Jonathan gitlin
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Discovery stands on its wheels for the first time.
Jonathan gitlin
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Part of it controls the elevons, part is the main landing gear mechanism.
Jonathan gitlin
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Our cargo hold is taking shape.
Jonathan gitlin
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Cameras monitor the bay from all angles.
Jonathan gitlin
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If you look closely you will see why I hate having to apply stickers.
Jonathan gitlin
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For the STS-31, there was only one chair for an astronaut on the lower deck.
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Just missing the orbital maneuver system.
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About to start bag 16, with bag 17 waiting behind the scenes.
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WHO has been installed.
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Not quite finished yet.
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Here is the flight deck.
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Discovery on its stand.
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You can also ride Hubble in the bay.
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Another look at the putting into orbit of Hubble.
Jonathan gitlin
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Once Discovery it was over, I had to concentrate on fixing this partially disassembled Saturn V, damaged by a cat which, to scale, would be frankly huge.
Jonathan gitlin
The continued collaboration between Lego and NASA continues to thrill. In 2017, the Danish toy maker released a highly detailed Saturn V – a model skillfully put together in time-lapse by Eric Berger d’Ars before its release. Two years later, Lego followed up with the Apollo 11 lunar lander, and in 2020 it was the turn of the International Space Station. And earlier in April, Lego released the latest set featuring NASA’s famous worm logo: spaceship Discovery, as was the case with the STS-31 mission of the 1990s. It was an important mission, reaching the highest orbit for a space shuttle to date. Discovery put the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit and its crew even captured the event on IMAX cameras taken for the ride.
Lego have made a number of space shuttle sets over the years, but none have been as detailed as this 2,354 piece set. The finished orbiter is 21.8 inches (55.46 cm) long with a wingspan of 13.6 inches (34.6 cm), and it lends itself well to Lego brick reproduction at this scale; the space shuttle was covered in block tiles, after all.
STS-31 was a mission to launch Hubble, and so it’s with Hubble that you start, a build that was reminiscent of the construction techniques used in the Saturn V. Over the past decade or so, Lego has adopted new methods of construction, sometimes known as SNOT (Studs Not On Top), which gives designers a lot more freedom than stacking bricks vertically on top of each other, and this set is a wonderful demonstration of that.
Although the set is aimed at adults – the box says 18 + –Discovery has good playability. The undercarriage is spring loaded, the elevons and rudder move, and it’s solid enough to have decent swooshability. The mark of a good Lego building, for me at least, is when you build a step and then stop and yell “this is so cool!” as you understand the mechanism or the construct you are creating I’ve had at least five “that’s so cool!” moments with Discovery, which should be seen as a resounding endorsement of this set.
The only thing I’m not that effusive about is the price. At $ 199, it’s almost twice as expensive as the Saturn V, despite not having a much higher brick count.
Ad image by Jonathan Gitlin