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Ladies rock outer space! That's the tagline of the newest set to be approved by LEGO Ideas, as it honours five pioneering women of NASA with their own minifigures!
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Pioneering women of NASA honoured as new LEGO minifigures


Scott Sutherland
Meteorologist/Science Writer

Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 12:22 PM - Ladies rock outer space! That's the tagline of the newest set to be approved by LEGO Ideas, as it honours five pioneering women of NASA with their own minifigures!

Back in 2014, LEGO released a new set called The Research Institute, aka "Women of Science", which contained three minifigures - an astronomer, a paleontologist and a chemist, to celebrate the contributions women have made to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Now, well-timed with the popularity and message of the movie Hidden Figures, science writer Maia Weinstoc came up with the Women of NASA set, which beat out 11 other projects to become the next to be approved as an official LEGO Ideas set.


The Women of NASA LEGO Ideas set.

Included in the set are:

Margaret Hamilton - whose work at MIT, in producing the on-board flight software for the Apollo lunar missions actually started the modern concept of computer software, which is still in use today.
Katherine Johnson - a brilliant mathematician and scientist who is best known for computing the trajectories, launch windows and emergency backup flight-paths for space missions in the Mercury, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. Her work was instrumental in ensuring Alan Shepard's Mercury capsule was quickly located after it splashed down in the ocean, in putting the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon, and in getting the Apollo 13 crew safely back to Earth after their lunar landing was aborted.
Nancy Grace Roman - an astronomer who became one of the first female executives at NASA, she developed several space-based telescope projects, to monitor the Sun, space and Earth, and due to her planning and commitment to the project, she has been called "the mother of the Hubble Space Telescope."
Sally Ride - physicist and astronaut, she became the first American woman in space in 1983, on board the Space Shuttle Challenger. After retiring from NASA, she went on to found Sally Ride Science, to encourage children (especially girls) to pursue careers in the sciences.
Mae Jemison - an engineer and medical doctor who became the first African-American woman in space, as she flew as a mission specialist on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour, in 1992. She is currently the principal of the 100 Year Starship Project, and was also the very first real-life astronaut to appear in an episode of Star Trek.


Margaret Hamilton


Katherine Johnson


Nancy Grace Roman


Sally Ride and Mae Jemison

These five amazing, brilliant and dedicated women were the pioneers in astronomy, space and space exploration at NASA. Check out the Women@NASA website for the stories of the women that make the space agency as incredible as it is, today.

This LEGO set follows not only the Research Institute, but also other fan-designed sets such as the Yellow Submarine, the Doctor Who and Big Bang Theory sets, the Ghostbusters Ecto 1 and Back to the Future Time-travelling DeLorean, the ExoSuit and the Mars Curiosity Rover.

LEGO Ideas staff are still working on the final design, pricing and exact availability date for the set. The best guess, at the moment, is that it will likely be on shelves sometime in late 2017 or early 2018.

If you want this set, be sure to watch closely (and follow the Women of NASA Twitter account), because LEGO Ideas sets are very popular, and the Research Institute sold out almost immediately.

Happy International Women's Day!

Sources: LEGO Ideas | LEGO Ideas | NASA | 100 Year Starship Project

Watch Below: Meteorologist and storm chaser Jaclyn Whittal has a message for us all on International Women's Day.

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