Lego Space Shuttle Launched

18-year-old Raul Oaida has taken his love of Lego's to new heights.

The Romanian teenager teamed up with Australian space buff Steven Sammartino to send a Lego replica of the iconic shuttle back into space; the original idea of using a Buzz Light Year figure had to be scrapped because it was too heavy.

The next issue was keeping the lego pieces together in the unpredictable weather that many miles above earth; Oaida relied on superglue to keep the 180-piece vessel intact.

The team launched the giant helium balloon, camera, GPS and lego shuttle from a field in Lauda-Königshofen, Germany. The craft made it 22 miles into space, capturing the incredible video above; it was aloft for a total of 6 hours and landed about 150 miles from its launching point.

Check out some other cool stuff sent into space:

Comments

[seeitornot]

08:13 PM on 03/15/2012

A Romanian Kid, Danish Legos made in China, and a Canadian flag, now that’s globalization!

[Jesper Richardy Eriksen]

08:15 AM on 06/29/2012

Most of it is correct but LEGO bricks are not made in China. They are either produced in Billund (Denmark), Kladno (Czech Republic) or Monterrey (Mexico). ;)

[carloarnone]

06:21 PM on 03/13/2012

Awesome sauce!

[theistus]

04:31 PM on 03/10/2012

Headline is misleading and inaccurate. This object did not go into space, it only achieved the stratosphere.

[seektruefaith]

12:18 PM on 03/10/2012

Oh goodie...more space junk. Fortunately, it did not hit anybody on the head when it came down. Someone has too much time in their hands.

[theistus]

04:30 PM on 03/10/2012

It did not go into space, it went into the stratosphere. A balloon cannot achieve escape velocity, and will always come back to earth, as this one did. Read the article.

[Helen A Rogers]

05:18 PM on 03/09/2012

"18-year-old Raul Oaida has taken his love of Lego's to new heights."

Legos not Lego's

[psandysdad]

12:46 PM on 03/09/2012

A helium balloon cannot go into space. It is an atmospheric delivery system only. It rises because helium is lighter than air. It is not, however, lighter than space. As soon as external pressure falls enough as the atmosphere rarifies at high altitudes, the balloon would stop rising.

Space is a hard vacuum: a balloon could not survive. The ratio of internal to external pressure tries to rise to infinity in a vacuum and the balloon will pop.

[musicmasterno1]

03:21 PM on 03/09/2012

Never underestimate the power of the Lego. ;)

[jaye4412]

11:51 AM on 03/09/2012

Not trying to hate, because this was a good thing that these guys did: shows smarts, and cunning, but 22 miles above the earth is not space.. If that leggo craft would have went into space, it would have burned up on re-entry... It's made of hard plastic, and was held together by glue...

[Benbo]

11:46 AM on 03/09/2012

Glue is for cheaters!

[rchrdktrb]

11:37 AM on 03/09/2012

Legos are great!!

[luellawhewei]

11:17 AM on 03/09/2012

Pardon I meant Romania

[luellawhewei]

11:17 AM on 03/09/2012

That is great! Glad to see a young man doing something inventive and educational instead of playing video games.. if they have those in Russia.

[Ben Wilson]

10:01 AM on 03/09/2012

This is brilliant stuff! Love stories like this! Good on Raul!

[Mr Fix]

04:00 AM on 03/09/2012

Obama's New Space Program !

[luellawhewei]

11:17 AM on 03/09/2012

This is a Romanian kid, nothing to do with Obama.

[jaye4412]

11:44 AM on 03/09/2012

They just can't help themselves.... A rock could fall on thier heads, and they would blame Obama.... LMAO...

[AWL]

01:41 AM on 03/09/2012

A great effort, but floating to an altitude of 22 miles is way short of a spacefaring mission. This is on the SCIENCE page.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

04:58 AM on 03/09/2012

What have you ever done that was as cool or interesting as this?

[DFW333]

06:20 AM on 03/09/2012

Well he's right. For the purposes of official record keeping space starts at the Kármán line which is 100 km above sea level. According to this, the lego shuttle only reached an altitude of 22 miles which is 35km, just over a third of the distance. The shuttle was still in the Stratosphere.

[AWL]

05:37 PM on 03/10/2012

Nothing, it's newsworthy what they did. But the editors of this page ought to have more regard for scientific accuracy.

[glaze]

07:27 AM on 03/09/2012

That's because this story is too controversial for the POLITICS or RELIGION page, not funny enough for the COMEDY page... (etc.)

[jaye4412]

11:48 AM on 03/09/2012

That's because it's science, not polotics, or religion...

[lastmanstanding99]

01:40 AM on 03/09/2012

He got high!