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: LEGO released its new Icons Hubble Space Telescope model on Saturday (Aug. 1), building upon its line of adult-aimed sets honoring historic NASA spacecraft. The Hubble desktop display is scaled to the included astronaut minifigure, giving a sense of the real observatory's dimensions. Removable panels provide a look at the interior mechanisms and instruments, including mirrors, fine guidance sensors and gyroscopes.
: The European Space Agency (ESA) on Tuesday (Aug. 4) said that it has teamed with The Pokémon Company for this year's World Space Week. Aimed at "sparking the imagination," the collaboration began with the release of new artwork of Pikachu dressed in an ESA-style astronaut flight suit, complete with her own patches. How Pokémon will fit into the commemoration of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, will be announced soon.
: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project full-size diorama that for almost 50 years was on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. is now on its way to the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Set to debut this fall, the 67-foot-long exhibit is comprised of an Apollo command and service module used for tests and a Soyuz made up of spare components, as well as the backup docking module.
: Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by Richard Branson, is getting ready to add a new spaceship to its fleet and needs to give it a name. After polling its team and its "Future Astronauts," the company has narrowed the choice to four finalists. Voting is now open (through Aug. 27) on Horizon, Explorer, Ascend or Apeiron. The ship will be christened (and new livery revealed) before test flights get underway.
