KFOX has been following the anticipated launch of El Paso astronaut Danny Olivas. The launch is scheduled for Friday, June 8.

The world will be watching the blast off closely, and so will workers at El Paso's Boeing facility.

Lourdes Sanchez is one of the Boeing engineers who helped design the energy orbital return units, or energy convertor units that Danny Olivas will be taking with him to the International Space Station.

"It's just like what you have in your home when you plug in things to the wall and you get energy. You get a lot of power out of the solar rays. This takes it, and conditions it, or softens it by converting it into the right kilowatts and sends it into the various parts of the station," said Sanchez.

The units are part of a larger system that will provide power to the growing space station. The Starboard Three (S3) and Starboard Four (S4) integrated truss segments that will help power labs for testing and other functions of the station.

According to Boeing, The S3/S4 truss segments will be the second starboard addition to the 11-segment truss structure will eventually span more than 300 ft. to carry power, data, and temperature control for the orbital outpost's electronics.

Delivering the S3/S4 is the main mission of the Atlantis trip. Once in space, Olivas will do a space walk to install it.

"To know that Danny Olivas, who's from here will be taking a product I built and team members built, that's super! That's just great!" said Mike Romo, an electrical mechanical specialist for Boeing in El Paso.

Romo took part in the first prototypes that came to El Paso's boeing plant. He said it's a job he's put a lot of hours into.

"Being a prototype and knowing that this is our future, is exciting. If we do good here, it's going to help the International Space Station. It's going to also help El Paso. It's going to bring work to us," said Romo.

But before anything gets launched into space, it undergoes several levels of testing.

"This is what the astronauts are relying on, the energy. If it doesn't work, we're putting astronauts in danger. So that's why it goes through an extensive process of making sure everything works the way it needs to," said Rebecca Cardenas, a test specialist at Boeing.

Boeing is NASA's main contractor for the United State contributions to the International Space Station. A total of 16 countries contribute to the space station.

KFOX's John Purvis will be covering the the Atlantis Shuttle launch in Florida on June 8.