The line of plastic construction toys manufactured by The Lego Group is celebrating Women in STEM by producing the Women of NASA Lego set. This new set of Lego set toys went on sale last week on Amazon, and quickly rose up the chart to become Amazon top-selling toys.
The Women of NASA Lego set features prominent women who have made significant contributions to the NASA space exploration endeavors. The set although it doesn’t feature all women who have had the privilege of working at NASA (some opted not to be featured), does feature some like:
Sally Ride – the first American woman to travel into out space
Mae Jemison – the first African-American woman in space
Nancy G. Roman – NASA’s first female executive and ‘mother’ of the Hubble Space Telescope
Margaret Hamilton – who wrote the software code that helped land the Apollo 11 crew safely on the moon. In 2016, she was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The idea of honoring the Women of NASA was originally by science writer Maia Weinstock. She says, “I wanted for this particular set to focus on women who had contributed to NASA history.”
She then approached The Lego Group back in 2016, and her project got the 10,000 votes needed to proceed after barely two weeks. Weinstock hopes the Women of NASA Lego set will not only celebrate women in various STEM fields but also spark girls at very tender age who still play with dolls to have an interest in matters STEM.