“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear.
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Header Image Via: LEGO
To celebrate Land Rover’s 75th Anniversary, LEGO has announced a 2,336 piece Land Rover Defender 90 set as a part of their Icons Classic collection. There’s lots to love about this one. The LEGO Land Rover Defender 90 comes in its familiar straight-line, boxy body adorned with the classic green and white top. The model will also come along with a roof rack, engine snorkel, offroad front bumper, and all the miscellaneous gear your LR Defender would ever need for its next overland adventure. Needless to say, this will look perfect on the shelf right next to the LEGO Land Rover Defender Technic set.
Another cool touch to all of this is a video that features explorers, Roha Moharrak and Aldo Kane as they attempt to race to “The Hardest to Reach LEGO Store in the World” in their very own Land Rover Defenders – Moharrak, the first Saudi woman to ever summit Mt. Everest in the classic yellow Camel Trophy Defender and Kane, an extreme & remote locations expert trekking around in a no-fuss Defender 110. And once at the remote store, both Moharrak and Kane are tasked with putting the whole set together under some “extreme” conditions. So, who wins? Check out the video above.
On October 5th, 2022, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission launched the “Endurance” Dragon spacecraft into outer space with a course set for the International Space Station. After 157 days of orbiting around Earth aboard the ISS at a dizzying five miles per second, and conducting over 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations in the on-board laboratory, the crew of four has safely returned home.
The “Endurance” Dragon completed its splashdown off of Florida’s west coast on March 12th just shortly after 9 PM. The crew consisted of two NASA astronauts, Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina. This particular mission was one for the history books, as it marks a couple of firsts in space exploration. Nicole Mann, a member of the Wailaki tribe, became the first Native American woman to fly in space. It was also the first time a Russian cosmonaut flew aboard a private American spacecraft. And for Koichi Waktata, this was his fifth journey into the cosmos, a record for the Japanese. For a debrief of their mission stay tuned here. What’s next for SpaceX? Well, they’re currently running a separate mission on the ISS with their Crew-6 team and have a projected return date later this year.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right? That saying has applied to the space suit whose technology hasn’t changed in the last 40 years. The previous suit design has proved itself time and time again, from countless missions into Earth’s orbit to walking on the moon. However as of this week, there is a new dawn in astronaut spacesuits.
NASA has tapped into a company called Axiom Space to create a totally new spacesuit dubbed the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) that will be worn by astronauts during the manned Artemis III mission to the moon in 2025. The focus for the new suit design was to give astronauts more mobility within the spacecraft and especially on the lunar surface. The AxEMU is equipped with more joints allowing the wearer to perform movements such as twisting, bending, and squating. The new suit design also concentrates on better thermoregulation to combat the frigid temperatures of permanent shadow areas on the moon. They’ve also ditched the typical white for an all-black suit with a tri-color of orange, light blue and navy blue accents. For more information on the AxEMU, head on over to the Verge’s coverage here.
WESN, a Detroit, Michigan based knife manufacturer recently announced the Bornas, their rendition of a modern fixed blade knife. WESN puts together a lightweight and durable package that remains low-profile enough that it can accompany you through the city, but still act as force in the outdoors. The blade is constructed out of CPM S35VN stainless steel and you either have your choice between a wood or G10 handle material, as well as either a leather or Kydex sheath. As WESN aptly puts it, this knife is for the “urban wilderness explorer.” I don’t think we can disagree.
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