Tag Archives: NASA

LEGO Creator Expert 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery launches with Hubble Telescope [Review]

LEGO Space Shuttles are a mainstay of the brand’s space themes, with the company having produced well more than a dozen models across a variety of scales, themes, and degrees of accuracy. But there’s something about the iconic design of NASA’s black-and-white reusable space plane that captures our imaginations and keeps drawing us back. The latest set from LEGO is the largest and most detailed yet. 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery has 2,354 pieces and includes both the Discovery orbiter and the Hubble Space Telescope that Discovery launched on the STS-31 mission in April 1990 (the same year as LEGO’s first Space Shuttle set, 1682 Space Shuttle Launch). LEGO is also celebrating 2021 being the 40th anniversary of the first shuttle flight. The new shuttle set is part of the Creator Expert lineup and will be available starting April 1, retailing for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £169.99. Today we’re going to dive in with a full, hands-on review of this massive spaceplane.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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LEGO 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery with Hubble is revealed as 2,300-piece Creator Expert set [News]

2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the first NASA Space Shuttle flight in 1981, and LEGO is marking the occasion by launching its biggest shuttle set yet. 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery rings in at 2,354 pieces and features the iconic orbiter on its most famous mission, STS-31. This 1990 mission launched the renowned Hubble Telescope, which is still in operation. The new 18+ Creator Expert set will be available starting April 1, and will retail for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £169.99.

LEGO sat down with Dr. Kathy Sullivan, a former astronaut who served as a mission specialist on STS-31, to reveal the set and discuss the mission to launch Hubble, as well as talk about engaging children in STEM and space exploration. The full interview can be viewed on LEGO.com/gobeyond.

Watch for our full review of this set coming very soon, and check out the rest of the details below.

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Jumping for joy on the moon

For some, the month of April in the year 1972 may not be memorable but for astronaut John W. Young this date marks the journey of a lifetime – he became the ninth person to walk on the moon. Young’s iconic jumping salute which has been captured both in photography and video is recreated in LEGO bricks by spacemanship123.

Jumping salute on the moon

This brick-built astronaut seems to make use of a lot of tile type pieces as well as some slopes and a few LEGO Technic elements. A spacesuit does seem like it would be a tough model to design because of its bulky nature and also its requirement for articulation seeing as it is a figural build striking a pose. Designer spacemanship123 was able to make it happen by using various clip pieces in addition to some ball and joint elements. Overall I would say the idea behind this build is unique, perhaps even out of this world! It’s not an everyday occasion that a human lands on the moon, or that an astronaut is built out of bricks.

Kennedy Space Center awesomeness in 10...9...8...

Here at The Brothers Brick we often feature LEGO spaceships, shuttles, and rovers both real and fictional and we are usually quite impressed. But as you can imagine we achieved a new level of…impress-ness when we saw the entire Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A. This stellar creation was built by Lia Chan. Lia is a person of few words, no words, in fact. Other than providing a title we have no idea how many pieces this has or how long it took to build. One thing is clear is that this was a labor of love and the end result is just breathtaking.

Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A

Lia could have stopped there and we would have been plenty impressed enough, by golly! But an alternate configuration features the shuttle launching with a realistic plume of exhaust. That is just…stellar!

Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A

LEGO Ideas officially reveals 864-piece 21321 International Space Station [News]

LEGO has just announced the final design of the fan-voted 21321 IDEAS International Space Station. Catered for adult LEGO fans as a display piece with authentic ISS details including rotating joints and adjustable solar panels, the main build is accompanied by a buildable mini NASA space shuttle and cargo spacecraft. The 864-piece set will be available in LEGO stores and online on February 1st, 2020 retailing at US $69.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £64.99. We’ve already got our hands on an early copy, so be sure to check out our review: 21321 LEGO Ideas International Space Station Review.


Click to see more images and the full details of the International Space Station

LEGO Ideas feels right at home in orbit with 21321 International Space Station [Review]

Many of us here at The Brothers Brick are space fans in one way or another, so we were pretty excited to see that the next LEGO Ideas set would be 21321 International Space Station when it was proclaimed the winner of the 10th-anniversary fan vote last summer. Now less than a year later, LEGO is revealing the final version of the set today, and we’ve got our hands on a copy to bring you a full review. Retailing for US $69.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £64.99, the newest model from the LEGO Ideas crowdsourcing platform has 864 pieces and will be available starting Feb. 1.

Click to read the full, hands-on review

InSight has landed

Because I grew up during the time of M:Tron and Blacktron, I tend to think of fantastical fictional ships when I think of LEGO space creations. Of course, this totally neglects all the models built of real world spacecraft. Luckily, LEGO fans like Cyndi Bourne produce amazing space creations like her NASA Mars InSight Lander to remind me that space is a real place. This detailed model was originally commissioned by an employee at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, but it was Cyndi’s idea to add the landscaped base. Her landscaping always impresses me and clearly she can build the surface of any planet! While it might seem simple, as the whole landscape is built from various sizes of dark orange plate, achieving this look requires both patience and creativity. You have to know just where to put each plate, and Cyndi clearly knows.

NASA Mars InSight Lander

To the stars and beyond: my microscale LEGO spacecraft inspired by NASA – part 2

Continuing on my fad of building “hard sci-fi” spaceships that look like they might have been designed by NASA or SpaceX, after completing the Vanguard, I found myself with a handful of leftover modules. So I set about building another ship and employing some of the techniques I’d learned and adding others. Last time my ship had topped out at 89 studs in length, but the I.E.A. Discovery rings in at 120 studs.

Read Part 1 here.

I.E.A. Discovery

One of the main things I wanted change was the color scheme. Although the solid black-and-white motif is very classic NASA, I was trying to build a spaceship of the future, so perhaps a little color was in order. My two chosen highlight colors were sand green and flame yellowish orange (or bright light orange, if you prefer Bricklink’s nomenclature). Both are vibrant and bold, while still capturing the vintage space-race color palette I wanted. Continue reading

To the stars and beyond: my microscale LEGO spacecraft inspired by NASA – part 1

As a longtime LEGO space builder, I found I was ready for a bit of a change. After years of building Star Wars and video-game inspired spaceships, I wanted to try my hand at building a spaceship that is, paradoxically, a little more down to earth. Rather than ships bristling with big guns or outfitted with wings, I decided to take my visual cues from movies like Interstellar, The Martian, and of course, NASA’s own designs. Several years ago I built the space shuttle launch system for the theme, and since then I’ve been working on a couple of spacecraft. I’ve displayed them at a number of conventions, but over the holidays this year, I finally polished them up and photographed them. The first ship I built was the Vanguard, part of the fictional Interplanetary Expedition Alliance, mankind’s first attempt at visiting nearby planets and their orbiting bodies.

I.E.A. Vanguard

I built it as a series of discrete modules, and then strung the modules together to create the larger spacecraft. I like this technique because it lets me play with small structures of a few dozen elements at a time, which also results in a look similar to the real International Space Station’s modular design. Continue reading

A classic LEGO rendition of a legendary spacecraft

What better way to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing than with some LEGO Classic Space? The celebrated theme’s iconic colour scheme meets the most famous craft in humanity’s (admittedly short) space-going history in Dallen Powell‘s fun digital LEGO model. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing but admiration for the recent 10266 Lunar Lander set, but I wouldn’t be able to contain myself if LEGO released this version alongside it. Eagle looks the business in this livery, and Dallen has made some great choices — the landing pads in red are simply perfect. And check out Benny, how pleased does he look with his new ride?!

LEGO Classic Space Moon Lander

LEGO City 60230 People Pack – Space Research And Development [Review]

Among LEGO universes, space exploration is the new Pirates. And the new Castle, too. Space is trending like never before. Quite uniquely, LEGO isn’t only revisiting historic moments, but also gives us a glimpse into the future of space traveling; this is what LEGO City summer 2019 sets are all about. The lineup consists of familiar concepts for ships and vehicle, but there’s one set that stands out from the rest, 60230 People Pack – Space Research And Development. The set brings a stunning assembly of 14 minifigures along with a bunch of accessories and equipment. It consists of 209 pieces and retails at US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99.

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LEGO Creator Expert 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander [Review]

Along with Town, Castle, and Pirates, the theme of space exploration has always been one of the pillars of LEGO philosophy. It all started with 801 Space Rocket set released just three years after the first human spaceflight in 1961. Throughout the decades of play bizarre space sub-themes like Insectoids, Ice Planet 2002 and Spyrius have appeared. But it turns out kids (and adults, too!) are fascinated with the real spacecrafts just as much as sci-fi ones. The memorable LEGO Discovery line-up brought us models of the most amazing human-made space ships and commemorated the landmarks of space exploration, and LEGO’s first Lunar Lander was way back in 1976. Now celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, LEGO is taking us back to the moon with a very special LEGO Creator Expert 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander set. The set consists of 1,087 pieces, includes two minifigures of astronauts and retails at US $99.99 | CAN 139.99 | UK £84.99, and is currently available with a special promotion of a commemorative LEGO Apollo 11 patch.

Click to read the full review