Firm Gets OK for Space Factory

A Houston-based company received NASA’s approval today to build and operate a habitable platform that will be used by commercial firms to manufacture products in space.

The firm, Space Industries Inc., will receive no federal money for the project, which is expected to cost $250 million to $500 million. The platform will operate automatically much of the time, but will be visited periodically by astronauts for servicing. Max Faget, president of Space Industries Inc., said the platform--35 feet long and 14 1/2 feet in diameter--should be ready to be carried into orbit by the shuttle in 1989.