McDonnell Delivers More Test Hardware for Space Station

McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. in Huntington Beach has delivered its second piece of test hardware for the first permanently manned U.S. space station.

The hardware is part of a $1.9-billion contract awarded to a multicompany team led by McDonnell Douglas in 1987 to build a major portion of Space Station Freedom. The station is expected to be completed in the mid-1990s.

McDonnell Douglas last week sent a mock-up of a cupola for the space station to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The metal, wood and glass cupola is an octagon-shaped room that would be used by astronauts for such purposes as docking the space station with the space shuttle or operating telerobotic devices.

The cupola would also be used for observing astronauts who do assembly and maintenance outside the space station. In their spare time, astronauts could use the small room for star-gazing.