Lego Minifigs Going to Jupiter via Juno

Because the world knows Lego and NASA are like peanut butter and chocolate (good by themselves but better together) the three minifigs above are headed to Jupiter aboard Juno which is launching tomorrow. Like a lot of the recent sets that have gone to space I am looking forward to seeing them in a Lego store near me soon.  Are you paying attention Lego?

The figures, milled from aluminum, will accompany Juno on its five-year trip to Jupiter. When Juno arrives in 2016, the Lego likeness of the Roman god, Jupiter, his sister, Juno, and the Italian astronomer, Galileo, will be there to take in all the sights and bask in the immensity of the largest planet.

The brick company even underwrote the project, at a cost of $5,000 for each of the minifigs, which will soon become the farthest flying toys ever. The manufacture of the figures was a deliberate process to ensure the figures would not interfere with NASA’s sensitive measurements.

At $5k per I doubt these will actually be in the stores but a nice plastic replica would be awesome. Juno launches tomorrow (August 5th) at 11:34 a.m. EDT.

[Source] [NASA Release]

Thanks to BobG for the tip and Google for finally finding what he was talking about.