Needs more reddish-orange.

The only proper launch tower beside Town shuttle sets, until 60351 : Rocket Launch Centre (yes also a Centre)

(not including the licensed 75975 : Watchpoint: Gibraltar)

@Maxbricks14 said:
" And that is the ugliest Lego rocket I've seen!"

I think the rocket from 60228 : Deep Space Rocket and Launch Control looks worse (at least since 2022 came along to compare it with) 2019 space had an issue with printing white properly on their spaceship canopies, it looks white on the box, but in real, it's greyish, making it look uglier.

(but it has a lot more play features, and I understand they went for the design / modularity, and even to this day will still be compatible with 2024 Space sets)

The later 2022 rocket looks better but has the crew hidden in part of the orange rocket, as it does not fit in the orion capsule, of course it's still a playset, or the Artemis rocket would need to be 2 meters in size to be somewhat minifig sized.

But for 2022 LEGO did a transparent canopy in the Space Station and Moon base capsules instead , so there are still multiple cockpits available to work with 2024 sets as well.

Now this is fun.

@MCLegoboy said:
" We went there to save it from the red squids of communism, ."

Or, like Buzz Aldrin said in an interview, "because we didn't go there". :) Space, the final frontier, where no man has gone before.

As far as space launch centers go... this one is a bit too boring. City sets are often boring to build bcause of the 5+ age rating and this one really suffers for it. The one from 95 and the one from 2016 are both more interesting.

By the way, this rocket carries one astronaut. How does he come down? Who knows! It's 2011 so I'm not sure if reusable rockets would be realistic to expect.

Yellow Octan tank?! 0.o I didn't know that Octan produce rocket propellant

@SwingTop said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
" We went there to save it from the red squids of communism, ."

Or, like Buzz Aldrin said in an interview, "because we didn't go there". :) Space, the final frontier, where no man has gone before."

Sideway question: was Buzz so buzzee he got buzzed?

On the set: we found this complete in a big pile of used Lego. The absolute favourite of our two kids, they are 9 and 11 now and we still build it at least twice a year. Functionality: it swooshes! That's enough.

This gives me nostalgic vibes, though I didn't have it.

Fight! Fight! Fight! :D

@Maxbricks14 said:
" @Miyakan said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"Getting fancy with a Centre instead of Center, eh?"

Not fancy, Proper."
Yes, you're right, centre is British English. Americans just don't know how to spell!

Anyway the set is too small to be a centre, should be re-named rocket launch pad. And that is the ugliest Lego rocket I've seen!"

It's French, you know it, and rightfully feel guilty about it, even when it's not your fault. The rocket isn't pretty but functional - you can store either a cargo or piloting module in it. Alltogether a fun playset. Also, the boss has the best office desk of any Space Port to date!

@Snail:
If it’s the interview I’m thinking of, Aldrin claimed they selectively edited his responses to make it look like he was speaking in support of their position when he was entirely against it.

I loved this rocket as a kid. I got it in a LEGO bucket at a consignment sale.
Anyway accents are weird. Americans pronounce zebra as (Zee)-bra while most of the rest of the English speaking world pronounces it (Zeb)-bra. A fascinating fact probably due to the fact Brits colonized much more of the world than American. Also until the island of Pitcairn became an independent nation the sun will never set on the British empire.

@Snail said:
"Functionality: it swooshes! That's enough. "
What more can you ask for?

@Captainfives1514: https://what-if.xkcd.com/48/

@gsom7 said:
"Yellow Octan tank?! 0.o I didn't know that Octan produce rocket propellant"

They do, and even the rocket 60351 : Rocket Launch Centre has an octan fuel tank in it , as well as 80035 : Monkie Kid's Galactic Explorer has a cylinder with a chinese text octan logo.

@Captainfives1514 said:
"I loved this rocket as a kid. I got it in a LEGO bucket at a consignment sale.
Anyway accents are weird. Americans pronounce zebra as (Zee)-bra while most of the rest of the English speaking world pronounces it (Zeb)-bra. A fascinating fact probably due to the fact Brits colonized much more of the world than American. Also until the island of Pitcairn became an independent nation the sun will never set on the British empire."

I pronounce it (Zed)-bra :)

I suspect the American release of this set was spelled "Center," so it's correct everywhere from everyone's point of view.

@magnumsalyer said:
" @Captainfives1514 said:
"I loved this rocket as a kid. I got it in a LEGO bucket at a consignment sale.
Anyway accents are weird. Americans pronounce zebra as (Zee)-bra while most of the rest of the English speaking world pronounces it (Zeb)-bra. A fascinating fact probably due to the fact Brits colonized much more of the world than American. Also until the island of Pitcairn became an independent nation the sun will never set on the British empire."

I pronounce it (Zed)-bra :)"

...and I pronounce it "horses with stripes". Also, elephants are "shaved woolly mammoths" and narwhals are "oceanic unicorns".

(the above is a joke)

@Andrusi:
@Huw has previously admitted to anglicizing the spelling, since the _official_ official names scraped from LEGO.com hew to the American spellings.

In Canada pretty much any spelling goes! Although there is the British history, so much comes from the US via media and even software, that the US spelling of many words is quite commonplace. I'm employed by a provincial government ministry and my pay stubs state the "Check" amount on them rather than "Cheque" as I learned all through school! :)

Back on topic of the set of the day: I like this set. I always felt the rockets have an ICBM look to them and have a cluster of them to one side of my classic space setup.

Does look a bit like a Titan III ICBM, although assume in this case a satellite launcher with the accompany satellite which will be a tight squeeze. As in modern space exploration the astronaut is a bit redundant, unless they are already expecting the satellite to malfunction and need to have a maintenance person on stand-by.

Oh no! The thrusters are made out of plastic, how are we supposed to fly to the moon?!

@Maxbricks14 said:
"Yes, you're right, centre is British English. Americans just don't know how to spell!"
Samuel Johnson (a Brit) didn't know how to spell. Both -er and -re are attested in British English prior to Johnson. He picked one, and without regard to consistency. Noah Webster made great progress in the restoration effort.

@Miyakan said:
"The only reason you went there was because it was the only place left that hadn't been colonised."
You really should use the British spelling "colonized", which long predates both New England and the faux-French affectation -ise much later fabricated by a few weirdly insecure orthographers.

Regarding colonizing the moon, “the sun never sets on the American empire”…or maybe that's not how the saying goes. Americans are really bad at colonizing. The sun sets on the moon once a month.

America's dalliance with colonial empire was short-lived and nobody felt very good about.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071197/1898-06-03/ed-1/seq-2/
Most US colonies were acquired from somebody else who did the actual colonizing, Hawaii and Samoa being exceptions. After varying periods of lassitude, many were spun off in boring transitions to sovereignty that nobody remembers. Those that remain choose to do so.

@AllenSmith:
I think you missed the most important distinction, which is that those that remain have the potential to petition for full statehood, making them equal in respect to the thirteen colonies that founded this nation. Why Puerto Rico hasn’t done so by now, I have no idea. I can think of no corner of this planet that actually petitioned for full membership in the UK, equal to the likes of England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. Well, I mean, the Thirteen Colonies did make a fuss about no taxation without representation, but obviously they didn’t end up joining the British Parliament.

I had this one, lots of fun. The big long axles that go up the middle of the launch tower are so long that they warp, still get the job done though.