McDonnell Douglas Dedicates Clean Room

Rockwell may not see much future in space business, but one of its neighbors does.

Officials at McDonnell Douglas Corp.’s Space Systems Division in nearby Huntington Beach plan ceremonies today to dedicate a huge new clean room they’ve built to manufacture key components of the international space station that is to be assembled in orbit beginning in December 1997.

The station, funded primarily by the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency, will provide scientific teams from the various sponsoring nations a stable platform for long-term experiments.

McDonnell Douglas is building the adapters that will link the various residential and work modules of the station as well as the huge bridge-like truss section that will carry the power, hydraulic and water lines.

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations, manufacturing and economic issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com