LEGO 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery and Hubble Telescope coming 1 April 2021

March 22, 2021 |

LEGO continues to nurture its partnership with NASA to reinvigorate interest in space exploration with the all-new 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery, launching into your collection on 1 April 2021 – no, not an April’s Fools joke!

This ode to NASA’s Space Shuttle program is meant to commemorate the original NASA STS-31 mission, over 30 years ago, which launched the Hubble Telescope – capturing images of our universe, to help us understand more about the great beyond.

Coming in at 2,354-pieces, the 2021 LEGO Space Shuttle Discovery has a global release date of 1 April 2021 for US$199.99 / AU$299.99 and will be available exclusively from LEGO.com and your local LEGO store.

The lead LEGO designer is Milan Madge.

See below for regional links.

LEGO 10283 NASA Discovery Space Shuttle [US] – US$199.99
LEGO 10283 NASA Discovery Space Shuttle [AUS] – AU$299.99
LEGO 10283 NASA Discovery Space Shuttle [UK] – £169.99
LEGO 10283 NASA Discovery Space Shuttle [EU] – €179.99
LEGO 10283 NASA Discovery Space Shuttle [CAN] – CA$269.99

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As a special bonus to incenvise fans to order early (as if you needed any convincing to order the set!), LEGO VIPs will be able to purchase an exclusive Ulysses Space Probe for 1,800 VIP Points, which the Space Shuttle Discovery launched in 1990 on a mission to scan the Sun.

Update: Just heard from LEGO and the Probe is going to be delayed. No ETA of when it’ll show up as a reward.

These will be extremely limited like all VIP rewards.

Firstly, what an absolutely stunning set, and a great addition to your LEGO Space collection.

And you know what? No complaints about the 18+ black box design here – in this case, the black box actually works incredibly well as the backdrop of space.

While it’s no Mars Perseverance Rover, the Space Shuttle Discovery will look incredible next to the (recently re-released) 92176 NASA Apollo Saturn V, 10266 Lunar Lander, or 21321 International Space Station as incredibly awesome space-themed models to display.

The model measures 21.78cm (h), 34.6cm (w) and 55.46cm (l), giving it quite the display presence.!

LEGO has had a long and rich history with Space Shuttles, from Creator Expert, to Technic, to Creator but the 2021 LEGO Space Shuttle is most definitely the spiritual successor to 7470 Space Shuttle Discovery-STS-31 which was released in 2013 and was a collaboration with the Discovery Channel.

Nonetheless, it’s been over 10 years since the last Creator Expert-scale 10213 Space Shuttle which costs a small fortune on the secondary market, so LEGO fans who missed out will be delighted to have a shot at owning their own LEGO space shuttle.

The LEGO NASA Space Shuttle Discovery is made up of 2,354 pieces and is amazingly detailed in true reflection of its full-size counterpart, complete with functional landing gear, and payload bay doors that open one after the other. The doors also feature reflective stickers to mimic the cooling radiators found on the real shuttle orbiter.

At the rear of Discovery is housed the three main engines used for launch into orbit. These are flanked on either side of the tail by smaller engines designed for in-orbit manoeuvres and for deorbit and re-entry into the atmosphere at the end of the mission.

The flight control surfaces on the back edge of the wings and tail then are used to control roll, pitch and yaw as an airplane does. The tail’s rudder serves as a speed brake to assist in landing control and rollout on the runway after touchdown.

Sadly, from the press photos, it looks like the set will be heavily stickered, which is quite disappointing considering we got treated to printed elements in the Saturn V.

It’s not only the Space Shuttle’s exterior that is incredibly accurate, the interior from the upper flight deck down and through the mid-deck and out to the payload bay are sure to please both builders and space enthusiasts alike.

The crew cabin features the five seats in their correct placement for the astronauts on the STS-31 mission, complete with flight and robotic arm (Remote Manipulator System, or RMS), control panels.

Meanwhile the mid-deck contains the space shuttle’s storage lockers for necessities and mission equipment, space for the fifth crew member and the air lock to the payload bay.

The payload bay itself contains the Ku-band antenna for communications, cameras for the crew to monitor operations within the bay, and the RMS arm ready to grapple and release Hubble to carry out its mission.

The same attention to detail has been applied to the Hubble Space Telescope, with its hinged mirror housing just like the actual telescope and new gold foil solar arrays as well as a realistic, reflective, metallic silver design.

The telescope can be stowed in the payload bay ready to be connected to the RMS arm for deploy just as it was on mission STS-31.

As an added bonus for all you space nuts out there, to celebrate the launch of the new LEGO NASA Space Shuttle Discovery, the LEGO Group spoke exclusively to Former NASA Astronaut Dr. Kathy Sullivan to reveal details of her experience onboard the original NASA STS-31 mission and how the real-life space shuttle compares to the LEGO model’s detailed reimagination of the spacecraft and famous Hubble Space Telescope.

Filmed at COSI (Center of Science and Industry), the fascinating interview, which is now available on lego.com/gobeyond, Dr. Kathy Sullivan reveals details about the incredible mission, which launched the Hubble Space Telescope into the cosmos – enabling NASA, and scientists around the world, to explore more of the universe than ever before.

The interview also delved into Dr. Sullivan’s thoughts on encouraging more young people into STEM careers and the future of space exploration.

That said, despite stickers and the slightly high pricetag, LEGO have clearly knocked this one out of the park, and fans who have been clamouring to add a Space Shuttle (and Hubble!) to their NASA collection can finally see their dreams come true.

This is a no-brainer recommendation if you can afford it, and I’ll be ordering this one on launch day for sure.

The LEGO 10283 Space Shuttle Discovery will be released on LEGO.com on 1 April 2021.

Check out more display and lifestyle photos below!