A ‘Project Hail Mary’ Lego spaceship set a new record for highest altitude launch and retrieval of a Lego kit.
The Lego brick build, based on the hit Hollywood film, flew to an altitude of 114,790 feet (34,988 meters) on March 20 aboard a stratospheric balloon launched in Gwynedd County, U.K. The launch was done to market the movie, which is based on a best-selling 2021 Andy Weir novel.
Onboard, naturally, were minifigures of astronauts Ryland Grace and Rocky, presumably fisting their bumps in celebration. Sony Pictures Releasing UK, which distributed the film in the region, partnered with Sent in Space, which is a company that helps others do stratospheric advertisements. But the flight didn’t make it to space, as the widely-recognized Kármán line demarking space is three times higher than the flight’s altitude at 62 miles (100 km).
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“Every one of our projects is an exciting undertaking, but getting the chance to incorporate a Lego build into the spacecraft development process made this one a whole heap of fun for the entire Sent Into Space team,” said Chris Rose, the company’s head of projects.
Co-film directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller received an official Guinness World Records certificate in Las Vegas on April 13, while Guinness released the news Tuesday (April 21).
The movie version of Project Hail Mary released in theaters a month ago on March 20, and by midmonth April it reached $500 million in international box office sales, according to Variety (just behind the top grossing film of the year, ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’, at $629 million.)
The film is all-ages, but the Lego set is marketed to the 18+ crowd. There are 830 pieces, including the ship, a simulated centrifugal gravity system for launch, the Grace and Rocky minifigures, and a display stand.
With Ryan Gosling starring as Grace, the film portrays schoolteacher Grace and extraterrestrial Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz) on a mysterious mission to save their respective worlds.
The film, which received help from NASA during development, got a publicity boost from the agency during the Artemis 2 mission in early April. The moon astronauts viewed the film privately in quarantine last month, and the famous “amaze, amaze, amaze” was one of the movie phrases uttered during mission communications.
