Lego's next release screams girl power and we're totally here for it
A new Lego set expected to hit stores at the end of 2017 will feature the badass astronauts and scientists who made NASA what it is today.
The set -- called Women of NASA -- was created by science communicator Maia Weinstock and honors five accomplished women from NASA history. Lego announced that it has approved the set for release on Tuesday.
"Women have played critical roles throughout the history of the U.S. space program," Weinstock wrote in a description of the set.
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"Yet in many cases, their contributions are unknown or under-appreciated — especially as women have historically struggled to gain acceptance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics," she added.
The newly-approved set aims to help correct this by honoring some of the amazing women of NASA who haven't always gotten their proper due.
At the moment, the set features Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space; Katherine Johnson, a scientist and mathematician immortalized in the movie Hidden Figures who helped create the math that got astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program; Margaret Hamilton, a NASA scientist who developed software for the Apollo program; and Nancy Grace Roman, a NASA astronomer known for her work with the Hubble Space Telescope.
The unofficial art for the set shows the five pioneers in various settings modeled after their real-life NASA accomplishments.
Ride and Jemison, for example, are shown standing next to a Lego version of NASA's space shuttle, the vehicle that took both of them to outer space.
The look and feel of the set isn't yet finalized, but Lego will work with Weinstock's original vision in the next few months to make it a reality.
The Women of NASA set started off as a proposal on Lego Ideas, the community page where fans of the bricks can submit their own suggestions for sets that the company should make in the future.
Weinstock's idea went live in July 2016 and by August it reached the 10,000 supporters needed for Lego's consideration.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
