I think my fascination with all things Space began in grade 3.  I distinctly remember a quiz in class about the names of the planets, and I couldn’t remember all of them.  I soon learned the “My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas” mnemonic for memorizing the names, and soon I was at the library borrowing the entire shelf full of books on space and astronomy.

Somewhere in there I discovered space shuttles and totally fell in love with them.  What kid wouldn’t love “The world’s first true spaceship” or “The fastest airplane in the world”??  I must’ve been maybe 10 when I read “Challenger: A Major Malfunction” by Malcolm McConnell and was absolutely morbidly fascinated by the whole thing.  I remember reserving “Space Shuttle: A History of the National Space Transportation System” at one of the larger libraries in the city, what must’ve been the original edition.  I recently picked up a copy of the 3rd edition =)

So it’s with great sadness that I’m seeing NASA shut down the Space Shuttle program.  I’m very glad I got to see at least one launch in person, and I swear I’ll finish posting up pictures to that trip soon, but in the meantime, I give you:

Space Shuttle Advance

I built this between grade 3 and grade 6, out of spare parts combined from all my various Lego kits back when I was a kid.  This is the first time I’ve actually taken pictures of it, it’s a bit dusty from sitting on my shelf for years, but it’s the one Lego model I have that’s still intact.

This post is long enough, so I’ll post more pics of Advance for later (I named it when I was like 10, give me a break).  I’ll show off a full tear-down with all the features =D One more reason for posting pics of Advance now tho is that at the encouragement of my wonderful girlfriend I’ve finally ordered my first official Lego Space Shuttle!

It arrived late last week, it should be awesome to have pics of both shuttles next to each other, and maybe next to one of the models I picked up from Kennedy Space Centre too.

Man I feel like a little kid =p