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I want to know how many have been to space (they don't have to have returned.)

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  • 1
    In space, but no minifig (in german): it-republik.de/jaxenter/artikel/Java-goes-to-space-0092.html
    – starblue
    Oct 28, 2011 at 13:09
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    There was some LEGO on STS-134 mission but I have not find info about minifigs. Also I have not seen any report about LEGO actually been used during the mission. Just the press releases saying that LEGO will be launched. Anybody knows more?
    – user576
    Jan 9, 2012 at 19:57

6 Answers 6

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Actual Minifigures In Space

There have been a number of videos posted from the ISS mission, where we can clearly see one of the astronauts (Satoshi Furukawa) on the station holding a model with some minifigures:

Minifigs In Spaaaaaaace!

On the Gallery Pages they list out "Working and living in space - This is the LEGO models shown in the videos"

In the shots there are there are at least 7, if not 8 minifigs (assuming that each hair and face is part of a complete minifig, rather than having the bodies reused for the shots):

Working at the the equipment wall Computers Getting ready for a space-walk Sleeping Quarters Going to the toilet Exercise Machines

This appears to be the first time actual articulated minifigs have officially gone to space.

In November 2021, The LEGO Group announced that two further minifigs would be travelling on the Artemis I launch as part of their Build to Launch: A STEM Exploration Series.

Command Pilot Kate and Mission Specialist Kyle

A Romanian named Oaida Raul sent the Lego Shuttle [bs:3367] up on a weather balloon to "the edge of space" on 31 December 2011, but hasn't released actual figures of the altitude reached:

2001: A Brick Odyssey

LEGO Shuttle on a weather balloon

Two Canadian Students sent a Minifigure up to the stratosphere in January 2012, high enough to see the curvature of the earth, which can be seen reported on the Toronto Star's pages:

Minifigure in the Stratosphere, about 24,000KM up

Minifigure Statues

Before then the closest thing to a minifig officially sent to space are the three custom built aluminium Minifigure statues that went up on the JUNO space craft this year:

JUNO Spacecraft to Carry Three Figurines to Jupiter Orbit

The Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Galileo Galilei
The Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Galileo Galilei

This wired article concludes:

This unique project has put a smile on many Nasa and Lego employees' faces and stirred up interest from other state space agencies, as well. Will LEGO minifigs take another trip in space soon? Time will tell. But until that day, keep an eye on the sky for the fastest moving toys in the universe.

LEGOSpace.com's insistence on not supporting deep-linking fails me, but if you go to the Education Blog and scroll to Thursday, August 04, 2011

LEGO® Minifigures on a mission to promote space research

Three LEGO® Minifigures leave earth on the Juno deep-space probe today on a five-year mission to Jupiter to broaden awareness of the importance of planetary research.

Pictures of Minifigures

Prior to these two missions, previous missions have been promoted as sending Minifigures to space when in fact what they actually contained were pictures of minifigures:

LEGO bricks and products have been on several space missions. The latest mission with NASA was in 2004 when two astronaut minifigures hitched a ride on the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers.

When in reality what happened was:

Today, Opportunity returned pictures from Mars of another three “LEGO Bricks” and Sandy Moondust, the second “astrobot” representation of a LEGO Minifigure.

A stylised picture of a Mini-figure on mars

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  • They didn't say those were the first did they?
    – Erik Olson
    Oct 28, 2011 at 9:18
  • @ErikOlson, nope, but they made a big thing about it, Lego under wrote the project, and nothing in the press stated that it had been done before "These will join the following mini-figures in space". Oct 28, 2011 at 9:32
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Super old thread but wanted to contribute :) I'm an engineer with Blue Origin and I'll be sending up this minifig later this month on the New Shepard rocket!

Generic 1980-something space guy flying on Blue Origin's New Shepard later this month!

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    Great photo! Thanks for sharing this with us. Responding to "old" posts on StackExchange is a good thing. It isn't just a forum or message board. Did you name the minifig?
    – chicks
    Apr 10, 2019 at 14:32
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according to this NASA-article: at least 3 - the minifigs of galileo galilei, the god jupiter and his wife juno.

NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft will carry the 1.5-inch likeness of Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno to Jupiter when the spacecraft launches this Friday, Aug. 5 [2011].

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Since 2010 there have been Lego sets on the ISS but no mention of minifigs officially manning the outpost.

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Actually, I think the correct answer to that is "none".

While two Astrobots, Sandy Moondust and Biff Sterling were designed to follow the adventure of the two Mars exploration rovers, these only contained pictures of them, not actual minifigs.

So this leaves us with the three custom-built aluminium minifigs of the JUNO spacecraft, but considering these as minifigs is a bit of a stretch. To me, these are but statues of minifigs, not real ones. They aren't even yellow!

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  • No minifigs on the ISS?
    – Erik Olson
    Oct 28, 2011 at 9:22
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    Not being yellow is no reason to exclude them from being Mini-figures ;) There are many "non-yellow" characters now, including non-licensed ones from the Minifigures range (Zombie, Werewolf, witch, vampire, etc.) Oct 28, 2011 at 9:37
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    @ErikOlson - Not sure about minifigs - there's a video here of Duplo on the ISS: legospace.com/en-us/Videos/Default.aspx#354655 Oct 28, 2011 at 9:41
  • @Erik: not to my knowledge, but I could be wrong.
    – Joubarc
    Oct 28, 2011 at 9:42
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There are also some up in the ISS right now:

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-010815a-lego-minifigures-space-station.html

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