Lego’s “Women of NASA” set has proven to be an instant hit, becoming Amazon’s best-selling toy—and selling out on the platform—on its first day of release.
The $25 set is part of the Lego Ideas series, where the firm makes sets that are proposed by fans. In this case, MIT News deputy editor Maia Weinstock provided the suggestion.
The women of NASA depicted in this set are astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, astronomer Nancy Roman, and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton.
Ride was the first American woman in space, Jemison was the first African-American woman in space, Hamilton led software development for the Apollo space program, and Roman was integral in getting the Hubble Space Telescope program off the ground.
And yes, the machinery itself is in there too, with the 231-piece set including a space shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope.
There’s one figure missing from the set, though. Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician who inspired the film Hidden Figures, was originally supposed to be in there, per Weinstock’s proposal, but Lego could not get approval from Johnson and went ahead without her.
