Lego announces its biggest and most detailed Space Shuttle set yet

Published on March 22, 2021Updated on March 23, 2021

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle launch, Lego is releasing a new Space Shuttle Discovery set in collaboration with NASA. Discovery was not the first shuttle to take flight — that would be Columbia, which likely stirs up too many sad feelings for a Lego set — but it was the shuttle that launched the Hubble Space Telescope, which is also included in the set.

Available April 1st for $200, the set has 2,354 pieces, including three newly designed pieces for the windscreen and payload bay. It also includes 108 drum lacquered silver pieces, the most of any Lego set yet.

At 1:70 scale, the assembled shuttle comes in at around 8.5 inches high, 21 inches long, and 13.5 inches wide. The set comes with two stands so you can display the shuttle and telescope separately or together, as though the telescope is emerging from the payload bay.

The Lego space shuttle Discovery sitting on a table, with the Hubble telescope sitting just above its open payload doors. — *Space friends!*

This Discovery set is a big step up from previous Lego Space Shuttle sets like the Lego 10231 and 7470, not just in the number of pieces but in its overall sleekness and level of detail. The elevons on the wings can be tilted up and down by turning the middle engine, the leading edges of the wings have gray pieces representing the reinforced carbon-carbon of a real shuttle, and pulling up the flight deck reveals a mid-deck for tiny astronauts.

A bird’s eye view of the Lego space shuttle on a table, with it’s payload bay open to show the shiny interior of its doors. The Hubble telescope is next to the shuttle. — *Look at those shiny doors.*

Considering I derived great joy as a child from my (in retrospect) very dinky “Space Shuttle with Satellite” Hess truck, I am fully convinced this set will cure my ever-present existential dread. Please join me in appreciating these detail shots while I set a calendar reminder for April 1st.