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In 1969, Apollo 11 was the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon. Launching from the Kennedy Space Centre, the Saturn V rocket carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin beyond Earth's atmosphere into space. More than 530 million people are estimated to have watched Armstrong's first steps on the Moon on July 20 – taking "one small step for man" but "one giant leap for mankind" – and now those steps have gotten smaller with LEGO's new replica kit.
Coming in at a metre high, approximately 1:110 scale, the 21309 Nasa Apollo Saturn V model is designed to be an "icon of space exploration". It is the tallest LEGO Ideas set ever created, as well as having the most elements – a staggering 1,969 pieces in a nod to the year man first landed on the Moon.
LEGO designed the rocket to have three distinct stages – the S-IC and S-II sections, with a dock for the lunar lander with the command service module. The set also comes with three newly-designed astronaut figures, as well as a booklet about the manned Apollo missions.
Designed by Felix Stiessen and Valerie Roche, the LEGO Apollo Saturn V model was a project born from a "shared passion for space exploration". The pair worked on the collaboration without ever being in the same room as one another. When they presented their project to the LEGO Ideas team, it was taken over by Michael Psiaki and Carl Thomas Mirriam who created the final model which will be appearing in stores on June 1. Psiaki and Mirriam, while not members of the LEGO team, got involved in the project out of a similar passion for space and design.
"We were actually not asked [to join the project]," Psiaki explains, "I was so excited when I heard that the project was potentially going to happen, and told Carl about it because I knew he was also a space fanatic. We decided it would be really cool to work together since it is such a big mode, so we approached the Ideas team about helping develop the product."
LEGO models are inherently passion projects. Programmer Jannis Hermanns used the plastic blocks to create a replica 1990 Macintosh Classic – with functions developed using a Raspberry Pi. On International Women's Day this year, British firm Minifigs.me proposed a set of inspirational women as a LEGO Ideas project. The set included women from fields of science, aviation, art and politics, including Malala Yousafzai, Amelia Earhart and Rosalind Franklin.
Read more: Amelia Earhart and Rosalind Franklin immortalised in Lego for International Women’s Day
Last year, a LEGO Ideas set was proposed devoted to the women of Nasa. It has since been approved for production but has yet to arrive in stores. While women have played a critical part in Nasa's history, in many cases "their contributions are unknown or under-appreciated — especially as women have historically struggled to gain acceptance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)". The set created by LEGO includes figures of Margaret Hamilton, Katherine Johnson and Sally Ride, women who made remarkable contributions to the space race.
Now, with the designs of the first rocket to put people on the moon, LEGO marks yet another part of Nasa's history, aimed at providing a new generation with aspirational figures from fields of space exploration. The set has a general release date of June 1 2017, at an expected retail price of £109.99.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
