Space exploration fans, this one’s for you. LEGO has revealed an awesome new model of the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft that went to the Moon. The whole set, with the spacecraft included inside the rocket, will cost $119.99 and is being released on June 1 this year.
The rocket itself is 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall, about 111 times smaller than the actual Saturn V rocket, which measured a lofty 111 meters (363 feet) high. Just like the actual rocket, the LEGO set separates into the three stages that helped astronauts launch to the Moon.
In the third upper stage, the casing opens up to reveal the Command/Service Module (CSM) and the Lunar Module. Just like the real thing, they’re stored back to front, as the two spacecraft had to turn around and dock in space before making the trip to the Moon.
It’s not the first space-themed model LEGO has released, with others like the Hayabusa spacecraft, Curiosity Mars rover, and the Women of NASA sets coming before. But this one’s arguably more impressive and, well, it looks amazing.
All images courtesy of LEGO
There are 1,969 pieces in total, a nice nod to the year that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched to the Moon. There were of course five other lunar landings through Apollo 17 in 1972, with Apollo 13 failing but returning to Earth in a daring rescue attempt.
“The set also includes three stands to display the model horizontally, three new-for-June-2017 astronaut microfigures for role-play recreations of the Moon landings, plus a booklet about the manned Apollo missions and the fan designers of this educational and inspirational LEGO Ideas set,” LEGO said.
This toy began life as a Lego Ideas submission from users Felix Stiessen (saabfan) and Valérie Roche (whatsuptoday). Once the idea received 10,000 votes, LEGO considered it for production, and now here we are. It’s a bit different from the original idea but hey, who’s complaining.
Here are some more tasty pictures for you to enjoy, while we try to work out how to time travel to June.
