Lego space shuttle endeavour set
The space shuttle is Harkins' first submission to the website since joining five years ago. "This set is built to the same scale as the LEGO Saturn V, and would make the perfect companion piece!" states Harkins, who goes by the username KingsKnight on LEGO Ideas. The full title of Harkins' entry - "NASA Space Shuttle (Saturn V Scale)" - refers to another fan-designed set, the NASA Apollo Saturn V, which LEGO launched for sale on June 1. 8), Harkins' shuttle was the 16th most supported project out of more than 1,800 active submissions. "The historic space shuttle did so much for connecting the world, exploring deep space and conducting groundbreaking research," wrote Andrew Harkins on LEGO Ideas, describing his "NASA Space Shuttle" set. The space shuttle needs 10,000 votes to be considered for production by the Denmark-based toy company. It then remained on the ground for 16 years before being used again for STS-104, STS-114 (the first return-to-flight mission after the loss of space shuttle Columbia in 2003) and STS-128.- Could NASA's space shuttle be the next real-life launch vehicle to enter the LEGO universe?Ī fan-designed model of the reusable winged spacecraft has soared to more than 6,500 votes on the LEGO Ideas crowdsourcing website since lifting off less than a month ago. The skirt that will stand with the right booster first entered service in 1985 with the launch of STS-51G. (Two of those launches, 47 and 130, were with Endeavour.) One of them essentially flew the entire program, from beginning to end," he said.Īccording to flight histories provided by the science center, the aft skirt that will sit at the base of the left solid rocket booster made its first flight in 1982 on STS-3, the third flight of the space shuttle. "But the aft skirts, themselves, are as real as they get. "The booster separation motors, which we will put on in a couple of years, because they might get damaged hanging around a construction site - those will be replicas, because NASA won't give us real motors. " From the aft skirts, everything is real as they stand right now," said Jenkins.
One of them essentially flew the entire program, from beginning to end." (Image credit: California Science Center) "The aft skirts, themselves, are as real as they get. But we cannot live with anything more than that, we really can't," he said.įor safety reasons and access concerns, the July 20 move of the aft skirts will not be open to the public. "We wish he could do a little bit better and he's actually buying some new equipment to try and get a little bit better.
In fact, the science center's surveyor will be bringing in new hardware in hopes of getting measurements within 1/16 of an inch, Jenkins told collectSPACE. "So we are going to spend a lot of time making sure that the skirts are absolutely perfect, position-wise."
"If the skirts are not perfectly positioned, shimmed and aligned, it will mean that the two attach points for the solid rocket boosters to connect with the external tank won't be level or won't align with each other to whatever degree of error we made at the bottom," said Jenkins. (Image credit: California Science Center) Space shuttle Endeavour will be assembled atop the framed concrete pad, beginning with its solid rocket boosters. The view looking into the Space Shuttle Pavilion inside the Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center at the California Science Center. The exhibit, as it is now and has existed in the Samuel Oschin Display Pavilion, is the only place in the world where the public can walk under the tile-lined belly of a winged orbiter. The public has until the end of this year to see the vehicle close to the ground. The move will also begin a countdown to Endeavour going off display for a few years. "When the aft skirts are installed, it represents the first step in a decades-long dream." "This might seem like a small first step, but it is a really a giant leap toward setting the foundation for Endeavour's vertical exhibit," Jeffrey Rudolph, president and chief executive officer of the California Science Center, said in an exclusive interview with. On July 20 - the 54th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing - the base pieces for Endeavour's twin solid rocket boosters, the aft skirts, will be hoisted by crane into place. The California Science Center, which since 2012 has exhibited the retired NASA orbiter in the horizontal orientation, has set the date for the spacecraft's new launchpad-like display to begin being installed in the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center (which is also still under construction). It has taken more than a decade of planning, engineering studies and fundraising, but finally, the space shuttle Endeavour is ready to go vertical.