One of the consequences associated with my chum John’s 30-day build of his LEGO Ultimate A-Wing Starfighter (at 19 out of 570 instructions a day) is that space has been much on my mind recently.

But, before we go there, John’s message accompanying today’s photo(s) was as follows: “Well, here we are on the home run. The fighter now has two fins at the back, both of which are able to swivel inwards.”

John continued to say, “I suspect there is nothing more to do on the top, but the sides and underneath still have to be finished. However, we now have to take a break from the fighter to start work on the stand it will sit upon. This explains why I’ve sent you two pictures today.”

Returning to my meandering musings, now I come to think about it, there’s a lot of space-related activity going on. For example, I just heard that “a never-before-seen meteor shower will sprinkle tiny pieces of comet dust above Earth’s southernmost regions for a brief time later this year” (see Surprise Meteor Shower!).

Also, it’s hard to go outside at night without keeping a watchful eye open in case the Chinese government lets more rockets fall uncontrollably from the sky (see China’s Huge Rocket That Fell From Space).

On the bright side, just one hour ago as I pen these words, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spaceprobe has departed asteroid Bennu and is heading back to Earth carrying rock samples (see NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Leaves its Mark on Asteroid Bennu).

And finally for today’s build blog, did you see Elon Musk open Saturday Night Live (if not, here’s the Elon Musk SNL Monologue)? I particularly liked the part where he said: “I’d first like to share with you my vision for the future. I believe in a renewable energy future. I believe that humanity must become a multi-planetary spacefaring civilization.” Well, I can’t argue with that.

How about you? Do you have any thoughts you’d care to share?