NASA sent three custom aluminum LEGO minifigures to Jupiter on the Juno spacecraft.

The Juno mission launched from Cape Canaveral on August 5, 2011, as part of NASA's New Frontiers program. The three LEGO minifigures were produced through a partnership called 'Bricks in Space,' designed to promote STEM education. While standard LEGO bricks are made of ABS plastic, these special figures were precision-machined from 6061-T6 space-grade aluminum to ensure they would not outgas or degrade in the harsh vacuum of space.The figures represent key historical and mythological figures related to the planet. The Galileo Galilei figure carries a telescope and a replica of Jupiter, honoring his 1610 discovery of the four largest Jovian moons. The figure of Juno holds a magnifying glass to symbolize her search for the truth, while the god Jupiter holds a lightning bolt. These items reflect the mission's scientific goals of peering through Jupiter's thick clouds to understand its origin and evolution.After a five-year journey, the Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. It entered a polar orbit to study the planet's gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere. The minifigures remain permanently attached to the spacecraft's hexagonal deck. Because Juno is scheduled to be intentionally deorbited into Jupiter's atmosphere at the end of its mission to prevent contamination of the moons, these aluminum travelers will eventually be destroyed along with the craft.