AEROSPACE

McDonnell Douglas, Boeing to Form Partnership: The two firms will announce today they are forming a partnership to bid for a NASA contract to develop a new space launch vehicle that would reach orbit with a single stage, industry sources said. McDonnell’s Aerospace unit in Huntington Beach will team with Boeing’s Defense & Space Group to submit a bid for the X-33 program, an experimental launch system sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA plans to issue several initial contracts to design such a vehicle over a 13-month period and then select a single team in 1996 to being construction.