How does the Space Shuttle dock the ISS? The IDEAS International Space Station (21321) comes with a miniature model of a space shuttle. And while that has its place on the space station's stand, the official LEGO product page literally includes the statement "dock the shuttle" with a picture (that's also on the box) of the space shuttle approaching the front of the ISS model in order to dock. It seems to be a genuine "play feature":



But I have no idea how the shuttle is supposed to actually dock, i.e. how to fixate it onto the docking module in a stable and permanent way, given that it has studs facing each other. Besides this picture there is no hint on how to do that and the instructions don't include guides for that either. I also thought maybe it's the other way around (although that would possibly contradict physical reality), but the bottom of the shuttle is covered in float tiles.

So is there a way to actually dock the space shuttle to the ISS? Is there an official build way that the instruction is just coy of mentioning? Does that possibly involve the hinged parts with the airlock prints on them that are right next to the supposed shuttle dock? Or are there any "inofficial" ideas on how to accomplish it, possibly involving additional parts?



I know there are concerns about the space shuttle being a bit out of scale for the ISS when measured against reality and that a custom bigger shuttle might be more appropriate anyway. However, I still wonder how to dock the officially included shuttle model.
It looks like LEGO did not intend to make Shuttle attachable to ISS despite the statement. At least not with a stud-on-stud connection like the set is designed right now.

As seen in picture below, Shuttle is docked using a connection port inside storage bay with its doors open. Not sure if it is possible to replicate opened doors in scale Shuttle and ISS are built.



However if you neglect the lack of this feature and accept the docking with storage bay doors closed a little modification could solve the issue. Existing Fez piece attached to ISS isn't deep enough to accept Tile, Round 1 x 1 with Bar and Pin Holder (to invert stud to anti-stud) so an addition of Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Open Stud aka "Apollo stud" in between both of them will help modifying the docking port.