This page details my Lego Space Shuttle Discovery build. The Lego Space Shuttle Discovery kit arrived on 24th April 2021 and took two days to complete between 01/05/2021 and 02/05/2021. The Lego item number is 10283 and the kit consists of 2354 pieces. For details of the other Lego kits that I have completed so far see the main Lego Collection page of this website.
Build Details
The kit comprises two separate models, with the main part being the Space Shuttle Discovery orbiter itself and the secondary part being its payload, the Hubble Space Telescope. One of the cool aspects about this kit is that is can be displayed as two distinct models or with the telescope in-situ in the Shuttle payload bay.
The landing gear is fully retractable and is deployed by pushing the Shuttle’s rear body flap. This aspect of the design is a little disappointing, as once deployed you need to manually push the landing gear back in to place in order to retract it. This is something that Lego seem to have rectified with their Concorde kit.
Building the kit took a couple of days and overall was quite straight forward. I did manage to get the landing gear wrong and found that once the kit was assembled, I could not deploy the orbiter wheels correctly. After some head scratching and having to disassemble the kit and re-trace my steps, it turned out that I have misaligned a few key pieces when assembling the landing gear bricks. For the most part the instructions are quite clear, so this was most probably my fault, but I have heard of others online who have had similar issues with this build.
Summary
Overall, I enjoyed this build immensely and had a lot of fun. The finished model looks really cool displayed in my home office windowsill. I have chosen to display the kit with the wheels down and the Hubble Telescope in the payload bay ready to be deployed (I know this makes no sense!). It would be nice in the future if Lego issued new kits for some of the other four working Space Shuttles, perhaps with different payloads. It would be a great addition to my Lego collection if they did. :-)
| Lego URL | Lego ID | Pieces | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lego Space Shuttle Discovery | 10283 | 2354 | 02/05/2021 |