How lovely was Matt’s account of the STS-135 lift off, friends? I so enjoyed reading about his experience and so I thought I’d bring you a couple scale models of the Space Shuttle that you can make to commemorate the end of current chapter of space exploration. Luckily, there are a lot of wonderful NASA nerds who have taken the time to translate their love into craft. Get ready to break out your scissors and glue or your yarn and crochet hooks!

Papercraft
Alfonso X. Moreno, from AXM Paper Space Scale Models, has put together a 1:144 scale model of each shuttle, along with a cover sheet for each mission and payloads for many of the 135 missions.The closed-door shuttles are available for free download, and some of the payloads are available for free too. He’s got versions of all the crawlers and the launch platform – everything you need to set up your own tiny Kennedy Space Center! Alfonso is clearly passionate about his work and provides a lot of great information about each one of the missions.

Crochet
Emily from the MsPremiseConclusion blog has a fantastic pattern for crocheting the space shuttle. It’s five bucks, but fellow crocheters, I think it’s totally worth it. Her detail is excellent and it includes the solid rocket boosters. She’s also got patterns for a few older model rockets on her patterns page.

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Mindy has a special affinity for spacecraft, as she lives with her very own aerospace engineer. Follow her on Twitter @HolaMindy or check out her blog. If you make something neat, tweet her a link!