HOUSTON, 6 March 2010. Boeing [NYSE: BA] officially turned over the U.S. on-orbit segment of the International Space Station (ISS) to NASA with the signing of government form DD-250 at the conclusion of an Acceptance Review Board meeting in Houston.

Often referred to as "handing over the keys," the DD-250 is equivalent to a final bill of sale that formally transfers ownership. Through today's review board, NASA and Boeing verified the delivery, assembly, integration and activation of all hardware and software required by contract.

Thousands of components make up the segment's core systems including: thermal control; environmental control; guidance and navigation; communication and tracking; electrical power distribution; command and control; structure and mechanisms; and robotics.

"It was 10 years in the making, but NASA's acceptance today confirms that the U.S.-built portion of the International Space Station meets its requirements and that its hardware and software are in excellent shape," says Joy Bryant, Boeing ISS vice president and program manager. "The vehicle is capable of being fully utilized as a national laboratory, and we look forward to sustaining it for many years to come."

The U.S. segment interfaces with all the ISS international partner elements. It encompasses the truss segments, including the four solar arrays, and several pressurized modules, which consist of:

- Unity and Harmony, connecting nodes 1 and 2;
- the Destiny laboratory module;
- the Quest airlock;
- pressurized mating adapters;
- the Zarya storage module, built in cooperation with the Russian Federal Space Agency; and
- more than 2 million lines of software code to operate all the components.

Boeing is the prime contractor to NASA for the ISS. In addition to designing and building all the major U.S. elements, Boeing also is responsible for ensuring the successful integration of new hardware and software -- including components from international partners -- as well as for providing sustaining engineering work.