My social media went supernova two days ago with the news of the NASA Women LEGO set being announced! Designed by Maia Weinstock (featured previously on the blog), the set includes mini-figs of astronauts Sally Ride & Mae Jemison, Apollo computer programmer Margaret Hamilton,NASA astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, also known as the “Mother of Hubble”. The original design included Katherine Johnson (of Hidden Figures and @nasa Computational Research Facility fame), but LEGO apparently couldn’t get approval to include her in time to make the set.
I love absolutely everything about this, from Maia’s conception of it (and her long history of making custom mini-figs, including Twitter scientists, Supreme Court justices, and album covers!) to how quickly it reached the required 10,000 votes on Lego Ideas (in less than a month!), to the all-women team who created the final design, to the exquisite details than make even Pedantic Astronomer’s heart glad.
Details like the coat rack and the chalkboard behind Margaret Hamilton, from the iconic image, the separable boosters & external tank on the space shuttle, the nicely accurate Hubble Space Telescope, and the Hubble image of the Cone Nebula behind Nancy Grace Roman.
The second-last image above is Maia (left) showing off the final design to Margaret Hamilton (center) herself, along with lead designer Tara Wike (right). The very last image is a statement Maia posted on Twitter on Wednesday which just sums up her experiences to wonderfully.
--Emily
