Tag Archives: Space Shuttle

LEGO Icons 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft | Set Preview

Does anyone remember the LEGO 6544 Space Shuttle Piggy-Back Plane from the 1995 Town range? No – just us? Well here’s a really big version! Which is itself a really small version of the real-life NASA Space Shuttle transport. This is the brand new LEGO Icons 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft!

Constructed from over 2,400 pieces, 10360 measures over 60cm long and recreates both NASA’s remarkable modified Boeing 747, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise it carried. Although interestingly considering LEGO’s penchant for ever longer set titles, 10360 mentions neither by name.

Although definitely aimed as an adult display piece (see the black box and 18+ target age), 10360 still includes eighteen wheel deployable landing gear, a working shuttle mounting system, opening shuttle cargo-bay doors, and detachable engines, and you’ll be able to get your hands on LEGO’s latest Icons aircraft set when it lands in stores for around £200 / $230 later this year.

Brick Space

Here at The Lego Car Blog we are fairly useless when it comes to science fiction builds. Still, they do feature from time to time, despite TLCB Team understanding literally nothing whatsoever about the source material.

With such elaborate fictional spacey contraptions it can be easy to forget that space travel exists today, and is not simply reserved for science fiction. In fact from 1981, it was almost routine.

Such normality was the result of this; the NASA Space Shuttle, a reusable low-orbital air/spacecraft able to deliver people and things to and from space. Five shuttles were constructed and operated 135 missions between them, before the three surviving units were retired in 2011.

This fantastic Technic recreation of the Shuttle pays homage to the design that normalised space travel, and comes from previous bloggee Jeroen Ottens who has packed his model with a suite of Power Functions motors to bring it to life.

The landing gear, cargo-bay doors, robotic arm lift and rotation, satellite solar cell unfolding, and aircraft pitch/roll surfaces can all be controlled remotely, thanks to some very clever packaging and a gearbox to multiply functions, with more to see at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum.

Click the links above to head on a routine mission into space, plus you can click here to read our review of LEGO’s official Technic 8480 Space Shuttle set from 1996 that shares many of this model’s working features.

Piggyback

Lego Nasa Space Shuttle Boeing 747

This remarkable airplane is a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), based on the Boeing 747 airliner and pictured here piggybacking the Space Shuttle. It’s been built by Lia Chan of Flickr, who has appeared here before with his incredible Shuttle launch scene. There’s more to see of Lia’s spectacular replica of SCA NA905 on Flickr, where the album includes images of the model alongside its enormous real-life NASA counterpart shot on-location at the Houston Space Centre. Click the link above to visit the full gallery.

Lego SCA NA905

Night Lights

Lego Space Centre

The Space Programme has, by a wide margin, produced the fastest vehicles on (and off) Earth. This spectacular recreation of the Kennedy Space centre, complete with beautifully integrated lighting, comes from Lia Chan of Flickr, and it features both the retired Space Shuttle and its SLS replacement. Lia’s huge build first appeared here last year, and has now been re-photographed to capture the creation at night. There’s a whole lot more to see at Lia’s photostream – click here to get ready to launch.

Crawl Space

Lego NASA Crawler Transporter

This incredible vehicle is NASA’s Crawler Transporter, built to carry the enormous Saturn rockets, and later the Space Shuttles, to their launch site. Built way back in 1965 (although upgraded several times since then), the Crawler is the largest self-propelled land vehicle in the world, weighing in at over 2,700 tons. It’s powered by two 2,750bhp V16 diesel engines, with another two 1,065bhp engine/generators used for steering, ventilation and jacking… Oh, plus sixteen traction motors powered by four 1,341bhp generators. That’s a lot of power, which when deployed together gives the NASA Crawler a top speed of… 2mph. Or half that when loaded.

So fast it isn’t, but amazing it certainly is, and this spectacular Lego recreation of one of NASA’s most remarkable machines is a fine tribute to the real-world goliath. Built by Lia Chan it’s detailed to a stunning level, and includes a shuttle and booster rocket load too. There’s lots more to see at Lia’s Flickr photostream – click the link above to blast off.

Lego NASA Space Shuttle

Simplicity in Space

Lego Space Shuttle

It’s all LEGO in this picture, Earth and Moon included

Sometimes it’s the simplest solutions that yield the most impressive results. This micro-scale shuttle and space-scape is the work of bruceywan on Flickr. Everything in the shot is a LEGO brick. Click the link to read how he did it.

That’s what she said!

Lego Space Shuttle

Matteo Russolillo’s tiny rocket

Matteo Russolillo’s rocket may be small, but he’s certainly made it look impressive in this picture. This micro-scale Shuttle Crawler is a masterpiece of nice parts usage (NPU). View more pictures on MOCpages.