Space Shuffle Puzzle

Is this a rocket or a puzzle?  Well the “thrusters” hold 3 extra squares that can be added to the main tray one by one for additional challenges.  But you have to know which other pieces need to be taken away that equal the square in area.  Actually one of the most fun to work with on this website, the Space Shuffle puzzle has multiples of only 4 different basic shapes.  It’s fairly easy to get the pieces in the main tray with 4 squares because there are 1,717,982 ways to put them in there.  But the larger challenge (with any number of squares) is to then “shuffle” the pieces around in the main “space” so that no piece shares a side with another piece of the same shape.  With 4 squares there are only 2 solutions to do that!  One solution with 4 squares is engraved on the back.  Can you find solutions using 5, 6 or 7 squares in the main tray?  There are 8 challenges on the back, each listing the total number of solutions.

• red alder and black walnut wood
• 28 pieces
  
• 1,717,982 solutions
• 6″x 3.5″ (15x 9cm)
• difficulty level:  ranging from 3 out of 10 up to 10 out of 10