Lego confirmed Tuesday in a blog post that it will release a set of five “Women of NASA” mini-figures in late 2017 to honor the contributions of women to the U.S. space program.
The set was designed by fan Maia Weinstock and was selected from a dozen projects that had significant fan support of more than 10,000 users between May and September 2016, according to the Lego Ideas blog.
The set will include Margaret Hamilton, who developed on-board flight software for the Apollo moon missions; Katherine Johnson, who calculated the trajectories that landed the first humans on the moon; Sally Ride, the first woman in space; Nancy Grace Roman, who is known as the “Mother of Hubble;” and Mae Jemison, a medical doctor who was the first African-American woman in space.
Johnson was recently portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie “Hidden Figures.”
Lego said it was still working on the final design of the product, pricing, and availability.
“Women have played critical roles throughout the history of the U.S. space program,” Weinstock wrote on the project page. “Yet in many cases, their contributions are unknown or under-appreciated — especially as women have historically struggled to gain acceptance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).”
Many people were excited for the new mini-figures and took to Twitter to share the news.