The Legonauts, as they have already been nicknamed in the media, took off from a small airport in Slovakia, sitting on a platform similar to a space shuttle without a roof. It was printed on a 3D printer from a durable but lightweight carbon composite material.
The shuttle was designed by a team of space architects and engineers from Slovakia and the Czech Republic. They wanted their brainchild to inspire future generations to explore space, it is reported on the Czech Crunch website.
The balloon itself, which lifted the platform, was made of a special latex material filled with helium. As the stratostat climbed, it gradually expanded and grew from the original two meters in diameter to ten.
At an altitude of 34 km, the balloon burst, and the landing platform returned to Earth with the help of a special parachute. According to space architect Thomas Rousek, the team wanted to make sure that none of the astronauts fell from the shuttle. Two cameras filmed the experiment throughout the flight: one controlled the crew compartment, the other, attached to the boom, showed a side view.
The project does not end on the flight itself. Now it will be followed by a competition in which for the purchase of any LEGO set you can get one of the figures from this shuttle.