Awesome Spaceships

There are hundreds of unique ships and vehicles in the Star Wars universe, yet the vast majority seem cohesive and make sense as a collection. Spaceship fanatic EC Henry offers his thoughts on the secret sauce that holds Star Wars design together and offers guidelines you can follow for designing your own ships.

Star Trek’s starships have been warping through space since The Original Series debuted back in 1966. John DiMarco put together this compilation that shows how warp speed jumps have changed over the years, starting with the 1979 release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture through today’s series like Lower Decks and Picard.

Star Wars fans can dive deep into three iconic spacecraft with these Haynes Owners Workshop Manuals. The books delve into the design, engineering, and inner workings of the Millennium Falcon, X-Wing Fighter, and TIE Fighter. There’s also a Death Star manual.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is one of the greatest places we’ve ever visited. Recently, Adam Savage stopped by and got an up-close look at the full-scale T-70 X-Wing fighter they’re currently restoring. Lucasfilm loaned them the screen-used spaceship, which will soon go on display at the museum.

The Galaxy Grill is an unofficial tribute to Darth Vader’s fighter ship, the TIE Advanced X1. It’s made from steel and coated with heat-resistant paint. It uses the power of The Force, along with wood, kindling, and a lighter to heat foods up to 800º, the surface temperature of Mustafar. It’s a bit smaller than you might think.

The Mandalorian’s gunship, the Razor Crest, didn’t fare very well by the end of season two, but it still has a place in our hearts. A group of dedicated Star Wars fans in Yakutsk, Siberia built a 13-foot-tall replica of the ship out of wood and foam panels, and while it’s not likely to be space-worthy, it does look awesome.

This amazing book is loaded with more than 100 cross-sections of vehicles and spaceships from the Star Wars universe. Each image features call-outs detailing the inner workings of the vehicles from every Star Wars feature film. Highlights include Boba Fett’s Slave I, Vader’s TIE Advanced X1, and a Republic Gunship.

Season two of The Mandalorian has been quite a thrill so far, though the Razor Crest has seen more than its share of abuse along the way. ILM looks back at the creation of Mando’s ship, from its earliest conceptual designs through its production as both a digital object and an intricate real-world model for in-camera shots.

MetaBallStudios revisits their earlier starship size comparison with significantly more ships from the worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Just about every imaginable class of ship is represented, from the teensy Hocotate ship flown by the Pikmin to the Planet Express ship from Futurama to the gargantuan Ringworld.

Richard Branson revealed details of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo’s sleek interior cabin. Each of the six reclining passenger seats minimize g-forces during boost and re-entry, relays flight data on a personal screen, has a pilot communication system, and comes with an out-of-this-world ticket price: $250,000.

Good news everyone! There’s a sweet light-up replica of the Planet Express spaceship from Futurama. Quantum Mechanix’s collectible measures about 12″x 4″ x 4″ and has lights on its cockpit, portholes and exhaust. It also has magnets that make it easy to mount it on its stand.

She may not look like much, but she lights up where it counts. This 1:180 scale replica of Han Solo’s ship floats at the end of an adjustable Angelpoise-style base. You’ll want to grab the TIE Fighter lamp for the other side of your desk so they can do battle. Both lamps offer bright LED illumination, and are USB-powered.

Walt Disney World’s most immersive experience yet will be a new hotel being built next to Galaxy’s Edge. The Galactic Starcruiser will make multi-day guests feel like they’re inside a spaceship – the Halcyon – via galactic views, hotel staff portrayed by characters like Chewbacca, and a port day on the planet Batuu.

We already have a pretty good idea how big the ships of Star Wars would have been if they actually existed. But Corridor decided to give us a bit more context, superimposing life-size CGI models ships over locations on Earth. The Death Star is way smaller than we thought.

LEGO Ideas members Valerie Roche and Matthew Nolan’s SpaceX Ultimate Collection consists of 1,583 pieces. It lets you build the Falcon 9, the Falcon Heavy and the launcher. It also comes with a cargo ship, the Dragon spacecraft and Musk’s Tesla Roadster.

This 1:72 scale model kit of Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon is the ultimate collectible for fans of Han Solo’s ship. Bandai painstakingly inspected and scanned the movie prop used in A New Hope to create this model kit. It comes with LED lights and a display base.

Unlike other LEGO space shuttles, KingsKnight’s proposal is a 1:110 model, the same scale as the recently released LEGO Apollo Saturn V set. The design includes the tank and boosters, the Canadarm, a satellite, swappable decals, and seven microfigures.

Adam, Will and Norm got their hands on the awesome LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V scale model rocket a bit earlier than us mere mortals. Watch them unbox, methodically knoll parts, and build the set. Assembly and story time start at 2:25.

Based on a proposal by LEGO Ideas members Felix Stiessen and Valérie Roche, this model kit features a 3ft-tall (1:110 scale) model of the Saturn V, the most powerful rocketship ever built. It comes with a lunar lander and three astronaut microfigs.

Tested visited Quantum Mechanix’s booth at San Diego Comic-Con to look at the toymaker’s upcoming spaceship scale models. The highlight of the booth is definitely the cutaway Millennium Falcon, but the Star Trek Beyond ship and Star-Lord’s Milano are awesome too.

Licensed quadcopters based on the 74-Z speeder bike, the Millennium Falcon, the T-65 X-Wing and the TIE Advanced X1. Each quad is equipped with lasers and will have a game mode where three hits with a laser will make the quad land. More here.

LEGO enthusiast Lia Chan built this masterfully scaled and detailed model of the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39a. It includes the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the crawler transport system and the launch platform itself.

SpaceX just launched a communications satellite to space using its Falcon 9 rocket. For the third time in a row, the rocket’s first stage booster landed in the ocean on a drone ship. This brief time-lapse from an onboard camera shows the booster’s descent.

Redditor raskolnikov- is blowing minds all over the world with his incredible LEGO model of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Not only is it huge – it’s over 56″ long and weighs 70lb – it also has a detailed interior, with rooms and minifigs and even spaceships inside it.

On 4/8/16, after four failed attempts, SpaceX finally managed to land the first stage booster of its Falcon 9 rocket into a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. The rocket deployed SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship, which carried supplies to the ISS. Skip to 27:15 for the landing.

After two failed attempts, SpaceX finally managed to both launch the Falcon 9 rocket and safely land its first stage booster. The reusable rocket is a significant step towards drastically reducing the cost of going to space. Landing at 31:16.