by What do two dinosaur tails, four beehives, six sections of roller coaster and 88 faucets have to do with a rocket designed to fly astronauts to the moon?
They’re all among the rebuilt parts, hidden details and “Easter eggs” found during the construction of Lego Icons’ new model of NASA’s Artemis Space Launch System, which is now flying off store shelves. The $259.99 (€259.99 or £219.99) set, released on Saturday (May 18), includes the rocket and its mobile launcher (ML), built from 3,601 pieces.
Among those many plastic “bricks” are some creative new uses for the custom parts of older Lego sets, as well as some well-placed nods to the toy company’s history. The team also packs in some small details from the real Space Launch System (SLS), some of which Lego identifies in the kit’s 370-page instruction book, but others were assembled without explanation.
The real SLS was launched for the first time in November 2022 on NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I mission around the moon. The flight was the inaugural use of the first new mobile launcher built from the Apollo program. NASA’s Artemis program will use the same infrastructure to send astronauts back to the moon as early as late 2025 and then aims to bring the first woman, the first person of color and the first non-American astronauts landed at the south pole of the moon.
NASA Artemis Space Launch System Lego Icons: $259.99 at Lego
This faithful recreation of NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket has all the details a spaceflight fan could need, including a mobile launch tower and Orion spacecraft, and can even be separated into different stages.
‘Chutes’ and ‘ladders’
Although the LEGO Icons NASA Artemis Space Launch System series is focused on the rocket, most of the construction is spent on the more than two-foot-tall (70-cm) mobile launcher and, in particular, its support tower.
Starting from the outside of the base of the ML and continuing up two levels and then onto the deck at the base of the tower, Lego designers recreated grilled slopes and Lego Technic racks to represent stairs. These steps (together with the railings, represented using Lego water taps) provide a sense of scale.
“Unlike real life [ML]the Lego SLS platform has partially open sides that reveal interior details such as pipes and stairs,” reads one of the notes in the kit’s instruction book.
One of the moving features of the team is that the umbilical arms extend out to the rocket at the same time, just as they do during the actual launch. Although faithfully reproduced and illustrated in the set box, the individual limbs are not labelled.
Starting at the top, there is the crew access arm (built in part using Lego roller coaster track for bridge lattice work), which the astronauts use to board the Orion spacecraft; then the Orion umbilical service module, with its hoses (represented here by red and gray Lego dinosaur tails) that transfer liquid coolants and air to the European power and umbilical intermediate cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), which feeds fuel (liquid hydrogen), oxidizer (oxygen), purge air, gaseous nitrogen and helium, as well as electrical connections to the upper stage.
Next is the core stage forward umbilical skirt, which provides air and nitrogen gas, as well as power and data; the vehicle stabilization system, which keeps the SLS in place when it is being moved (in real life, for example during the roll-out to the pad) and when the 1:144 scale model is being moved; and finally, the core stage’s intertank umbilical, which releases gaseous hydrogen from the core stage.
At the bottom of the rocket, Lego has recreated the aft skirt electrical umbilicals, skirt purification umbilicals and vehicle support poles, which serve the two solid rocket boosters and support the 5.75 million pounds (2,610 tons) that the Space Launch System weighs .
“Like in real life, the entire rocket rests on the skirts of the booster,” reads a note from Lego designer Hans Burkhard Schlömer in the instruction book.
Reused rocket parts
Just like the real SLS, whose first several flights are reusing hardware left over from NASA’s space shuttle program, the Lego Icons NASA Artemis Space Launch System has some custom parts and some adapted from previous sets.
“The Lego element used for the [RS-25] Main engine nozzles were originally intended to represent a beehive but given ‘Mini hat no. 54,” wrote Schlömer.
Two tail service mast umbilicals located on the ML deck are used to fill the core stage tanks with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the propellant that runs through the engines during launch. Or, at least, that’s what actually happens.
From the outside, the Lego tail service trees appear to be accurate miniatures of the actual hardware. Hidden within them, however, is an “easter egg” that points to another fuel source.
“A Lego rocket must be propelled the Lego way, of course. The round 1×2 stacked plates inside the ‘gas station’ in front of the rocket have a long Lego history!” Schlömer wrote.
The white, red and green bits of the logo colors are a nod to the fictional Octan gas station brand that was first introduced as part of the Lego City line more than 30 years ago. A similar, albeit more obvious, Easter egg was included with a Lego prototype of the SLS; designed for younger builders, the Lego City 2022 Rocket Launch Center featured white, red and green fuel lines and a tank labeled with the Octan logo.
It goes without saying that all the hidden details of the SLS series are really hidden. One such part has retained its original purpose even since it was first produced.
“The cone element at the top of the booster was already used in Lego Classic Space rockets in 1979 (but it had a solid stud with the Lego logo),” notes Schlömer.
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