What A History to Build a Future On

Bob Crippen egressing the shuttle. Image Source: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/history/sts-1-astronaut-bob-crippen-remembers-the-ride-of-his-life/

If the valves are merciful, a bit of space history will be made this month.

Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft, developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, was slated to make its first flight on May 6. A valve issue pushed it back, and it’s now targeting launch no earlier than May 17.

As history-making goes, Starliner is likely doomed to be a bit overshadowed. Its initial raison d’être will be to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, a task SpaceX’s Crew Dragon began performing under the NASA Commercial Crew program in 2020. In an era when much of the space world’s focus is on the Moon, the sixth new US spacecraft to carry astronauts to Earth orbit may not receive the same attention as the first five, or even the seventh – as Orion is poised to carry the Artemis II crew on lap around Earth before a historic lunar jaunt next year.

But history it is.

I love to talk about my great-aunt’s experience working as a NASA contractor. I don’t know exactly when she started and when she left, but I know she was supporting Marshall during the Gemini program, and I know she was there for the return to flight after Challenger – at least a quarter century that saw the first flights of Apollo and shuttle, along with the first landings on the Moon.

Starliner awaiting launch. Image credit: NASA. https://twitter.com/Commercial_Crew/status/1787712732319330484

Someone who started a quarter-century career supporting NASA when she left would have gone their entire time never seeing a new US spacecraft carry astronaut to orbit. They would have seen a lot of other history – space stations and Mars rovers and telescopes and more – but no new American crew vehicles.

My tenure as a Marshall contractor has seen one already, and is about to see two more.

We are living in a Golden Age of space.

I enjoyed reading this week interviews with the three living astronauts who have done what the Starliner crew is about to do – fly in a US spacecraft no one has flown in before. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew the first Dragon four years ago; Bob Crippen was pilot of the first flight of the space shuttle, 43 years ago. In Crippen’s case, it was not just a vehicle nobody had flown in before, it was a vehicle that hadn’t flown before, period. Unlike every other US crew vehicle, there was no uncrewed test flight of shuttle – John Young and Crippen were along for the ride the first time it left Earth.

The first space shuttle launch, STS-1. Image credit: NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/mission/sts-1/

Bob Crippen, for the record, is kind of amazing. I’ve had the opportunity as a former journalist and a history writer to interview some incredible people, but I don’t know that I was as awestruck talking to anyone as I was talking to Crip, about Skylab and SMEAT and having his spaceship shot by a Soviet space laser.

When I was getting ready to publish my space shuttle history, “Bold They Rise,” Crippen was kind enough to write the foreword, and he talked in it about how he had the confidence to get in the cockpit of the shuttle for its first flight. And a lot of that confidence came from touring the country, meeting the people working on his ship, looking them in the eyes, and knowing that they were working to make sure he came home safely at the end of his mission.

It’s been a decade since “Bold They Rise” came out, and I’m now part of a team working on getting another space vehicle ready to carry its first crew. We have something Young and Crippen did not – a successful uncrewed test flight behind us – but it’s still a daunting responsibility. Crippen’s words have stuck with me; I’ve had the opportunity to meet the Artemis II crew when they came to Marshall, and I am looking forward to meeting them again when they come home safely at the end of the mission, and history is made again.

It’s a privilege to watch this history unfold. It’s incredible what this generation gets to see. I look forward to watching Starliner fly, and wish all the best to both the crew and the people responsible for making sure all their valves are safe. Because that’s how history is made.

The Artemis II crew. Image credit: NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/our-artemis-crew/

Standing Between Giants

Fifty years ago today, my Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story co-author Joe Kerwin and his crewmates departed Earth for Skylab on a Saturn IB rocket launching from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B.

This anniversary is a special one because it’s a big round number, of course, but it’s also special to me because since the 49th, I’ve seen “my own” rocket launch from that very same launch pad. I’m jealous that Joe got to ride his rocket, but it’s surreal to me that I got to be any sort of part of a launch from the same pad.

I have the privilege of talking to Space Camp teachers every summer, and I think that I stress to them is that Skylab and Apollo and Shuttle and Artemis aren’t stand-alone discrete stories; that they are all part of an ongoing journey, and that they will go back to their classrooms and shape the astronauts, scientists, engineers and others who will author the next chapters of that story.

We stand today on the shoulders of giants who got us to where we are, we now are at the dawn of a new golden age of exploration, but that next generation will get to see and do things we have not yet even dreamed.

Artemis II: We Are Going

NASA today announced the Artemis II that soon will become the first human beings to fly around the Moon since 1972 – Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

When I was awarded NASA’s Silver Snoopy several years ago, Glover was the astronaut that presented it to me. More recently, I had the opportunity to emcee Koch’s induction into the Space Camp Hall of Fame. (I didn’t get see her in person that night, she was in space at the time.)

I say that as a reminder of this – this is real. This is happening. These are real people, about to do something incredible, for all of humankind. Even if you’ve never met any of these four astronauts, if you’re reading this, you’re just two degrees of separation from real people who are about to carry our species once more into deep space. How crazy is that?

This is the Golden Age of space. 

We. Are. Going.

Rockets and Flight Termination Systems and Life

Six days (maybe).

This is a story about rockets and flight termination systems, but it’s also about life, and living it.

SLS could potentially launch on Tuesday, if…

…if it passes testing today to make sure that all the work over the last couple of weeks to address the issues experienced in the recent scrubs did all the things it was supposed, and

…if Space Force gives NASA permission to launch the rocket without recharging the battery for the flight termination system, which gives them the ability to blow up the rocket if something goes wrong.

The test should be done by early afternoon; hopefully a decision on the waiver will come not long afterwards. Fingers crossed. By the time you’re reading this, you may already know how it all turned out.

It’s all, for me, a bit reminiscent of a shuttle launch I went to over 11 years ago.

STS-133 was the third-from-last flight of the Space Shuttle; Discovery was delivering supplies, a robot and a storage module to the International Space Station.

It may have been the only launch I traveled to see twice; I went down in late 2010, but there were issues significant enough that it delayed longer than the week I could stay in Florida. (Like I said, echoes of recent events.)

Three months later, I was in Florida again. The first time I went down, it had never gotten close; the launch attempts were scrubbed before we even got to the viewing area.

This time, it was close. The countdown was at minutes from launch when an unexpected hold was announced.

There was an issue with range safety. That flight termination system that blows up the rocket if something goes wrong? Range safety is responsible for blowing the rocket up. A monitor wasn’t working, so they wouldn’t know if they should blow the rocket up.

The launch opportunity was nearing an end, rapidly. It looked bad.

On the orbiter, the crew continued to prepare for launch. From what they were hearing, it was unlikely they were going to space that day.

I can’t imagine how frustrating it must have been, not only to be on the verge of a scrub, but for that to be the reason. You’re not going to space, and the reason you’re not going to is because the range wouldn’t know whether to kill you. Had it been me, I’d have happily suggested a compromise where they just agree it’s OK not to kill us, and we go to space.

But it wasn’t me. It was a crew of real astronauts, doing real astronaut things. They’re on the orbiter, going through the motions of preparing for a launch they’re hearing is next to impossible.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I heard it came down to seconds. If it had taken seconds longer to resolve the issue, they would have stayed on the ground. Again. But it didn’t. They left Earth on a column of fire on their way to the International Space Station.

Two months later, they were at Marshall Space Flight Center for their post-mission visit. They did their briefing in Morris Auditorium, and when they opened it up for questions, I had to ask — what was it like sitting in the crew cabin of the orbiter, going through the steps of preparing for a launch that almost certainly wasn’t coming? Was it discouraging or frustrating?

In a word, no. They were too busy doing what they needed to get ready, regardless of what was going on somewhere else.

As one of the astronauts, Alvin Drew put it –

The worst thing wouldn’t be to be ready and not be able to go. The worst thing would be to able to go, and not be ready.

Not bad advice, for more than just space shuttles.

The Rocket Is the Boring Part

Here’s an interesting fact about space exploration that may seem at odds with my posts over the past couple of weeks:

The rocket is the boring part.

Don’t get me wrong, I love rockets. Rockets in general, and that giant rocket sitting on the pad at Kennedy Space Center that I devoted several years of my career to.

But even when I was actively working SLS, as weird as it was to admit it, I would readily cede that it’s the boring part of this whole space thing.

The interesting part is not the rocket; the interesting part is what the rocket lets you do.

The interesting part (knock on wood) is not the eight or nine minute uphill climb of smoke and fire, it’s what happens after the uphill climb is done.

Everybody remembers what Neil Armstrong said when he stepped on the Moon. How many people know what he said when his Saturn V left the pad?

Everybody loves the beautiful pictures the Hubble Space Telescope continues to send back; far fewer people remember which shuttle mission lofted Hubble into space.

The Voyager probes are in the news this week, celebrating their 45th anniversary of unprecedented science. Few of those articles mention the rockets they launched on.

If a rocket does its job properly, history may remember it in some awe-inspiring pictures, but most of the record will focus on what happened after the engines cut off.

The interesting part is not the rocket; the interesting part is what the rocket lets you do. What it makes possible. What it enables. What it inspires.

A lot of people are disappointed today that SLS is still sitting on the launch pad. A lot of criticism is being thrown at the program today because the rocket is still sitting on the launch pad.

But that one interesting fact about space exploration is a big reason why I am so proud to have been a part of SLS and everything it has accomplished, even without having left the pad.

Without having left the pad, it has inspired new missions, provided confidence to begin development of science spacecraft that will reveal new secrets of our solar system and beyond.

Without having left the pad, it has paved the way for a new era of exploration, providing the confidence (and inspiring the funding) for Moon landers and lunar habitats that will enable to us to return to deep space, this time to stay.

And perhaps more importantly than any of that, there’s the human element. It made me feel old the first time I talked to an engineering intern who was excited to be working on SLS because hearing about it in middle school was what made him want to be an engineer, but it also made me proud. It’s exciting seeing the excitement generated online for last week’s launch attempts. And, of course, I’m living proof of its inspirational power myself – I would never have dreamed of going back to school or studying engineering if it weren’t for that giant rocket sitting on the pad.

Without having left the pad, SLS has launched careers of people who will shape the next next era of exploration.

And all of that without having left the pad.

Imagine what it will accomplish when it does.

Once the boring part’s over, and the real excitement begins.

Four Days And Counting

Four days and counting.

The last time a human being traveled farther than anyone had ever gone was 1970.

The last time a human being traveled faster than anyone had ever gone was 1969.

For more than half a century, we’ve let those records stand.

Throughout history, our measure of progress as a species has been how well we go – going farther, going faster, going to new places, going with more people. Today, that measure has become how well we stay. What can I accomplish without leaving my house, and how comfortable can I make it.

Artemis I will prove, that after half a century of being constrained within the boundaries we set in Apollo, Artemis II could break those records and push humanity, as a species, forward in a way that we haven’t pushed in generations.

It’s time.

We. Are. Going.

Together.

From Tiny Space-Acorns, Might Space-Oaks Grow

When I was in the VAB, I took a picture with this pin, and was going to make the joke that It turns out if you plant enough of these little SLS seeds, you can grow a full-size NASA’s Space Launch System.

I was struck, though, by how true that really is. We handed out a lot of those little pins when I was part of the SLS Strategic Communications team, to industry leaders and political stakeholders and pop culture convention attendees and fifth-grade teachers and so so many more.

An effort like SLS takes not only engineering expertise, it requires the will of a nation to make it happen, and the SLS comm team, under the leadership of Kimberly Robinson and Marcia Lindstrom and Trey Cate, deserves a huge amount of respect for their part in stirring imaginations and excitement to make this game-changing rocket – and all the Artemis efforts it’s inspired – a reality.

They’ve planted a lot of seeds, and it’s amazing to see what’s grown from them.

Metal and Might and Magic

Somewhere twixt the pages of Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story, Skylab was in the VAB at Kennedy Space Center. In Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986, there’s mention of Columbia undergoing testing at the VAB. When the latter happened, I was about five years ago. For the former, I was a few years from being born.

How amazing, then, to witness that history this time? How incredible to have been a part of it?

I got to see the rocket.

I got to stand across the transfer aisle of the VAB and look over at this skyscraper-size vehicle I got to work on, whose height and breadth and thrust were defined by friends of mine, this tower of metal and might and magic that will return humanity to the Moon.

It’s a beautiful creation. It was an amazing experience.

I can’t wait to see it fly.

The Work of a Planet

To say all roads led to this is understatement:

From Utah came the solid rocket boosters.

The engines came from Mississippi, and, before that, from California via outer space.

The core stage came from New Orleans, as did the crew module; the former stopping in Mississippi for a hot-fire test on the way to Florida.

From North Alabama came the upper stage and its adapters, one of which now carries payloads from California and Italy and Japan and Kentucky and Colorado and Texas and Alabama and Florida and Arizona.

The service module was born in Italy and grew up in Germany before coming to America.

They came by airplane, by boat, by train.

And now, for the first time, they are all in the room together, to finally be assembled into one.

The work of a nation – the work of a planet – come together, to leave that planet and set sail for another world.

DIY LEGO Rocket Garden

(Updated June 22 with Ares I-X.)
(Updated July 4 with scale converter and STS mod.)
(Updated July 7 with Sputnik R-7 and more STS info.)
(Updated July 15 with Vostok and Voskhod.)
(Updated July 28 with Soyuz and Long March 2F.)
(Updated August 31 with SLS, X-15, SpaceShipOne and Dream Chaser.)
(Updated September 24 with SpaceShipTwo and GSLV Mark III.)

It started with the Saturn V, combined with a love of Skylab.

Like many people, I bought the original LEGO Saturn V kit. And that was going to be the end of it.

But then I happened to see that there were instructions online to convert it into a LEGO Skylab Saturn V. And, obviously, I need to have a LEGO Skylab Saturn V. So I bought a second LEGO Saturn V set. And that was going to be the end of it.

But then I built my two Saturn Vs. And because I replaced the top part of the second Saturn V with the Skylab mod, I had a Saturn V third-stage-and-Apollo stack left over. And the site where I got the instructions for modifying the Saturn V to Skylab configuration also had instructions on how to build a first stage for that S-IVB-and-Apollo stack to make a Saturn IB. So I did. And by that point, I knew it wasn’t going to be the end of it.

And that’s how I ended up with a LEGO rocket garden, all built to the same 1:110 scale as the LEGO Saturn V.

When I’ve posted pictures of my LEGO rocket garden, I frequently get questions about how I built it, so I thought I’d put together a “guide” based on my experiences. So here’s pretty much all I know about building a LEGO rocket garden.

Basically, all you need are pieces and instructions. (If you’re cleverer than I, you can do it without instructions, of course; but I’m writing for this for folks who, like me, aren’t cleverer than me.)

I buy my pieces at Bricklink. There are other places you can buy them, including Brickowl. Different people use different sites, so while I prefer Bricklink, you may prefer something else. Bricklink is a portal to individual vendors; it’s not so much a store as a storefront for sellers. When you make a purchase, you’ll frequently be placing multiple orders split between different stores that have different parts you need. Particularly with the bigger builds, the parts can get pricy over time, so I’ll spread my piece purchases out. Bricklink lets you set up multiple want lists, so I’ll have want lists set up for multiple projects at once. When I buy pieces I need for the thing I’m working on, I’ll add a few bucks extra for a future project, so it doesn’t hit all at once.

I haven’t done this yet personally, but someone more experienced than I read this post and pointed out you can also buy pieces directly from LEGO. Their shop doesn’t have the variety you can find on Bricklink, but it can be good if you need a large quantities of specific pieces.

Here’s where I found the instructions for the different builds, along with any hints I have from building them:

V2 – The instructions for this one are here. The site they’re on is a Google Drive with instructions for an incredibly wide collection of space vehicles. I was late finding it, so haven’t used it much. I thought I was going to be clever and make mine narrower because I didn’t like the way it narrows, but it looked bad. In the process, though, I replaced the nose with a simple 2x2x3 cone, and I do like that mode. You’ll need to add, I think three more 3024 pieces to go between the 4733 and the cone.

(Quick update, since I mentioned the Google Drive here. Another experienced builder, reading this, pointed me toward this Gitlab site with a very comprehensive collection of designs, which I had not seen before but will be revisiting. Update update: The creator of bricksin.space rightfully reminded me it’s a good resource. I have downloaded his books, but haven’t had a chance to use them yet.)

Juno – The instructions for this one are here. LEGO Ideas is a good, but inconsistent place to find instructions. The site’s primary purpose is for designers to post their ideas for people to vote on them so that they might become official sets. A few, but far from all, designers will share the instructions for their builds. The site will do nothing to help you find them, and in fact hides old ideas after they’ve expired. The designer, Eiffleman, includes decal or wrap designs here; I prefer to stick to just bricks. Also included here are the instructions for versions of the next three builds I did. I didn’t do the Juno until I’d done the other three, so I used instructions from elsewhere. (As a result, my Juno and Redstone fins don’t match, even though they’re the same in real life.)

Mercury Redstone – Instructions are here. In fact, it’s from a source where I got the designs for a good chunk of the collection. I mentioned Bricklink as a place to buy bricks; it also has a “Studio” section where you can find or share designs. A benefit to finding designs in the Gallery at Bricklink is that it’s very simple from there to create Wanted Lists for the parts and order them. There’s a designer in the gallery named legorockets who is based in my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, and whose collection of designs includes my Mercury Redstone, Mercury Atlas, Gemini Titan and Falcon 9. This (or the Eiffleman version mentioned above) is a good one to start with; it and the Juno are probably the easiest and cheapest, and of the two the Mercury Redstone is arguably more iconic.

Mercury Atlas – I believe these are the instructions I used for this one. All all note here is the importance of paying attention to version numbers. legorockets has at least four versions of the Mercury Redstone, and they’re all still on the site. At least once I realized I’d ordered pieces using a different design version than the instructions I was using.

Gemini Titan – I think this is the version of the instructions I used for this one. Side note here: Remember at the beginning where I said all you need to create your own rocket garden is pieces and instructions, and you don’t actually need the instructions if you’re creative. Well, technically, you don’t actually need the pieces, either. There’s a branch of the hobby where, rather than building physical models, you just design them virtually, using LEGO Digital Designer or Studio. Designing virtually lets you figure out what you need before you start ordering parts, and creating a digital rocket garden has two advantages over a physical one – it’s a whole lot cheaper, and you can do things virtually you can’t do in real life. A model that would collapse under its own weight in real life works beautifully virtually. And, in the case of this Gemini Titan, you can use a piece that doesn’t exist in real life – a white barrel piece, shown at the base of the Gemini capsule. This same piece, or lack thereof, also shows up in my shuttle model at the base of the boosters. Some people will paint the pieces to the color they need; I find limiting yourself to the limits of LEGO is part of the charm of the hobby.

Saturn V – I built the official LEGO kit. Unfortunately, it’s discontinued now. (Update: It looks like this is being rereleased, at least temporarily. If you can buy one new when you read this, that’s your best route; I’m leaving the following alternative instructions in in case you can’t.) You can still find them for sale on places like eBay, but be prepared to spend a lot more than the original cost. (It looks like some folks have reverse-engineered the set so you can order the parts and build it yourself; this may be one.)

Skylab Saturn V – I found the instructions here (design by Eiffleman, who did the Juno above) to modify the official LEGO Saturn V kit to the Skylab configuration. Unfortunately, that requires an official LEGO Saturn V kit, and, as noted above, it may be discontinued. If you don’t want to buy one second-hand, I noticed in working on this that legorockets has a Bricklink Gallery design for the full-up Skylab Saturn V, engines to shroud. It looks like you can probably source the parts cheaper than buying a secondhand Saturn V.

Saturn IB – I found the instructions here. As mentioned above, this was a mod using the pieces leftover from the Saturn V kit when I built the Skylab Saturn V, so it has the same issue with needing the discontinued set (See note above). If you want to build it from scratch, here are instructions from legorockets. I’ll throw in another side note here – Most of the bigger rockets have a lot of internal structure that you don’t see. Generally, when you get the part lists, they’ll have a color assigned to the pieces for that structure. If the pieces isn’t going to be visible, Bricklink will let you change the color to “(Not Applicable)” so that you can order the piece in the cheapest color, rather than paying extra to match a color that doesn’t matter. Many designers make this easy by picking an obviously weird color, like blue cylinders on a rocket that’s all black and white.

Space Shuttle – Since I originally posted this, KingsKnight has created an improved version; the instructions for which are on sale at Rebrickable for $15. You can probably still find the old instructions for free, but I endorse buying the new ones both because KingsKnight has put a lot of time into this design and its worth the money, and because I’m pretty sure the new design can save you more than $15 in parts versus the old one.)

I found the instructions here for this design by KingsKnight. I used a part list from Bricklink Gallery to create an easy Wanted List. You can also find the instructions on the Google Drive mentioned in the V2 section, but I figured this would be a good time to mention the Bricks In Space group on Facebook, which is a great resource for general information. There’s also an r/legorockets subreddit on Reddit.  Since I built built my Saturns using official kits, this was the biggest project for which I had to source all the pieces. I started buying parts several projects ahead, and broke it into chunks – I did the Orbiter first, and then got serious about the boosters and then got serious about the ET. As designed, it’s a phenomenally expensive build because of some rare dark orange parts for the external tank. Some people buy other colors and paint them; some go with a “close enough” orange. I went with white, the way the tank looked for the first two launches, which not only matches the way the tank looks on the cover of my shuttle history book, Bold They Rise, but saved me maybe a couple of hundred dollars. Bricklink’s Wanted List makes it easy to filter the parts for a particular color (i.e. dark orange) and then bulk change them to a different color (i.e. white)

Update: At the suggestion of KingsKnight, I made a slight mod to my orbiter, replacing the front end of the wings with the distinctive black appearance of Columbia, making it more true to the STS-1 or -2 white external tank. (It’s a pretty simple change, and much more simple if you make it was your building instead of after you’re finished.)
Update Update: I recently came across a post where someone gave instructions for modding KingsKnight’s build to the exact appearance of any orbiter for *any shuttle launch.*

Falcon 9 – Instructions found here. Another one by legorockets. Side note here: Relying on other people’s instructions and parts lists, and letting Bricklink’s automated system find sellers for you, it’s easy to sink money into things you don’t care about. Case in point: My rocket garden centers around the history of human spaceflight, so I wanted to build the Crew Dragon configuration of Falcon 9. This design includes that, so I went with it. When I was buying the parts, I noticed that one order had a small number of parts and a big price tag. Upon inspecting it, I found it was because one of the fairing configurations used a rare, expensive part. I have no interest in building a fairing for the rocket, so I removed the part from my order, and saved about $18. My Atlas V had flames for the Starliner that were like $4 each. I’m displaying it as a full-up stack, so you’d never see the flames. Gone. This was the first build where I really noticed that; if I’d paid more attention, I could have saved even more. There were other fairing parts I could have struck, and this design has legs that are interchangeable for either a launch pad or drone ship configuration; I only needed the former. (I recently had met the designer online behind this version that has folding legs, but no Dragon, if you’d prefer to go that way.)

Atlas V – Instructions are here. This is the only one so far that I’ve paid for instructions for; it was the only one I could find that was proper Saturn V scale and included Starliner. They were on Rebrickable, where people can sell designs. I paid just over two bucks for the instructions, and it was totally worth it. I’ll take free instructions where they’re offered, of course, but people put real time and effort into coming up with these, and I don’t begrudge them at all making some money off that. A bit of jargon – Bricklink has a Gallery; Rebrickable has “MOCs.” MOCs? My Own Creations, as opposed to official LEGO designs. (Back when I was a kid, making your own creations was what you did with LEGOs, before they started becoming more like model kits. That said, I’m not really building my own creations now, so I can’t say anything.) A MOC is just a custom design; it’s still a MOC even if it’s someone else’s creation that you’re just building. More jargon – you’ll occasionally see AFOL. If you do, it’s Adult Fan of LEGO. Now you know.

Ares I-X – Design files are on the Google Drive site here, and on Facebook Bricks in Space. The design for the Ares I is by Sebastian Schoen, aka Moppe Stone. While the Studio files were available, instructions weren’t included, so I contacted the creator through the Bricks in Space FB group. I modified it to Ares I-X since I attended that launch and work with some team members; the mod mainly involved replacing orange pieces with white like with the Shuttle; but it also meant I could simplify things a little at the bottom of the upper stage.

Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz – Instructions are here. LEGO Ideas designer tech_niek submitted a Soyuz design for consideration to become a real set (which wasn’t chosen), and as a bonus included versions for an entire fleet of Soviet vehicles using the same approach – the launchers for Sputnik, Vostok and Voskhod, in addition to Soyuz. (The post also has instructions to mod them to the whitish appearance at launch caused by ice collecting on the rocket.) The upside is, it’s a great all-in-one approach to the highlights of Soviet launcher history, (Though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hear the siren call of building N1 and Buran someday, designs for both of which exist.) The downside is, it’s a design optimized for being created as an official set, versus sourcing parts on your own, particularly if you’re doing the entire fleet. The Sputnik R-7 uses six of this part; the others use even more. Currently, no Bricklink seller in the US has more than five in stock, which means shipping is going to drive the price up; and the Soyuz uses an orange version that is even more rare. (The design also leaves a gap between the boosters and the core that is very visible at some angles, FWIW.)

Long March 2F – Instructions are here. Like the Ares I-X, this one is by Sebastian Schön. If I recall correctly, if you use the .io file for ordering from Bricklink, you’ll need to reduce the part counts in half – his instructions show the elements assembled and in separate close-ups, so the file includes parts for both versions. This is a good intermediate build, since the .io file doesn’t include step-by-step instructions, but it’s relatively easy to figure out, particularly if you’ve built a few rockets before this.

SLS – Instructions are here. (I used the v29 .io and .pdf files for mine.) Yet another Sebastian Schön design; you’ll note that the Orion matches the one on the Ares I-X. I made a mod to mine – the original plans require 40 of this piece, which on Bricklink would have increased the cost by about $200 or much more. As you can see in that picture, I took an approach to the core stage intertank that made it slightly less rounded but made the grid pattern more consistent and avoided needing that part.

X-15 – Instructions are here. Design by Kevin Huang, with a version that works from originals by Dan Favell and Nico Daams and adds a bit more scale accuracy. Kevin’s .io file doesn’t include step-by-step instructions, so to get a little better idea what was going on inside it I referred to the instructions for the Favell version. It’s not exactly the same, but it made it a little easier.

Dream Chaser – Instructions are here. Another Sebastian Schön design.

SpaceShipOne – Design is by Rudi Landmann. I don’t see the .io file publicly; Rudi was kind enough to let me try out a work-in-progress. Pictures are here, if it helps.

SpaceShipTwo – Design is here, by Simon Paul.

GLSV Mark III – Design by me, my first full-up 1:110 rocket design. I haven’t learned to create in Stud.io or LDD, so I don’t have files, but if anyone would be interested in building it, I’d be glad to help. (Alternately, there’s a Sebastian Schön version of the Chandrayaan uncrewed version of the rocket here.)

Space Stations and Other Things

In addition to my 1:110-scale rocket garden, I’ve also built a couple of builds to accompany the official LEGO Space Station kit, which is roughly 1:220 scale, about half the Saturn V. I started with a 1:220 Skylab found in the Facebook Bricks in Space files; it was fascinating to see the two stations in scale with each other. The visiting vehicles that come with the Space Station kit are out of scale with the ISS, and people have designed replacements for those. The space shuttle, in particular, struck me as bad, so I used a design from those Files for a properly-scaled 1:220 Space Shuttle. Like the Long March 2F, I didn’t have step-by-step instructions; I had exterior pictures and a list of parts and had to figure out how it went together from there, but this one was more challenging than the Long March was. It took a while, but it was rewarding. (As an added bonus, it meant that I could create in LEGO the planned-but-never-flown Shuttle-Skylab rendezvous mission.)

I’ve done one other true “MOC” – my own creation – the upper stage of NASA’s new SLS rocket deploying a CubeSat. It’s not as accurate to scale or as elegant, but I did it, and it was a good first step, before I did the GSLV Mark III. If you’re interested in creating your own design to Saturn V or ISS (or any other scale), here’s a useful tool for converting real-world measurements to LEGO measurements.

If you have any questions, leave a comment or find me on Twitter. Or, better yet, look up the Facebook or Reddit groups and join the conversation!

I hope this helps, and happy building!