Spaceships

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. Drops 6/2017 for $120.

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.

We’ve seen similar comparisons in illustrations, but YouTuber MetaBallStudios’ CGI video gives us a idea of how spaceships from movies, video games and more compare to each other. It’s amazing what you can build when you don’t really have to build it.

Gizmodo and artist Scott Park tried to enumerate the vehicles from the original Star Wars trilogy according to their size. They made a couple of mistakes, but it’s still a good list. Scott sells prints of this compilation and more cool works on Society6.

Dreadnought is an upcoming free-to-play 5-on-5 online multiplayer game where each player commands a large battleship. Choose a ship type then customize it with abilities and crew members. Coming to PC in 2016.

This video taken from one of the Endeavour’s F/A-18 escorts shows the shuttle flying over some of Los Angeles’ landmarks before touching down at LAX for its 2013 parade. You can visit her at the California Space Center.

A computer animated simulation of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. It will be the world’s most powerful operational rocket, able to lift the equivalent of a fully-loaded Boeing 737 into orbit. It will also support reusable booster rockets.

After almost a year of tweaking, Dirk Loechel has released the final major version of his enormous spaceship size comparison chart. It’s by no means definitive, but at least Dirk included the International Space Station for scale.

Photographers Scott Andrews, Philip Scott Andrews and Stan Jirman followed the final journey of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Florida to Los Angeles. They made this time-lapse video of the bittersweet procession. More on Time.

We were hoping it was a bromance simulator, but The Mandate is equally ambitious. It’s an open world RPG set in space, with real-time ship combat, turn-based boarding combat, crew management, ship designing and more.

Dirk Loechel is working on a chart that compares the sizes of spaceships from various sci-fi series. The chart is already daunting and makes for an awesome wallpaper, but he’s far from finished. It barely has any ships from manga and anime.

Even though the folks on the show getting transported weren’t actually spinning, this low-budget recreation of the Star Trek transporter effect using Christmas lights looks pretty darn accurate.

If you think Jason Freeny’s toy anatomy series is awesome, check out Josh Lane’s Spaceship Skeletal Surveys, a series of illustrations featuring bone x-rays of fictional spaceships.

Vesa Lehtimäki stumbled upon a box of his old spaceship scale models and took pictures of them head on “to capture their character.” The filter and shadows wonderfully combine grit and nostalgia.

Shinji Aramaki’s CG animated Starship Troopers: Invasion tells the tale of a rescue mission team who get more than they bargained for when their ship goes missing in the nebula. (Thanks Chris!)

It’s not quite as awe-inspiring as a witnessing the real deal, but Desrumaux Celine still did a good job of capturing the buzz and excitement before a rocket launch. Plus points for the POV bits.

Yelken Octuri is trying to make it possible for us to experience weightless sex with his Honeymoon space shuttle concept, which will allow 5 couples a 48 hour private experience in zero gravity.

Check out Virgin Galatic’s first successful test of dropping and flying back the VSS Enterprise spaceship from its mothership, in its race to be the first company to offer commercial space flights.