To help ensure a successful telescope integration into the aircraft, L-3 Communications Integrated Systems engineers have taken a section of a fuselage, known as section 46 from a retired 747SP aircraft in Oklahoma to use for a design mock-up. Design and engineering solutions will be tested on the mock-up prior to modification of the actural aircraft.

The transporting of section 46 in NASA's Super Guppy is a sight is behold and a major undertaking in itself.