Although his Tait Towers provides staging and scenery around the world for rock's biggest stars, James "Winky" Fairorth downplays his job.

"This isn't rocket science," he likes to say.

But now, thanks to a tiny but complicated mission his company recently completed with NASA and the rock band U2, he can say it is.

Tait Towers made 22 paper words for the lyrics to U2's "Beautiful Day," which Commander Mark Kelly of the space shuttle Endeavour displayed for a video shot on its May flight.

U2 uses the one-minute video of Kelly to kick off the song when it's performed on the band's ongoing "360" concert tour.

(The tour will bring U2 to Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday.)

Tait Towers has been building staging and scenery for U2 since the mid-1980s, said Fairorth, the company's president.

"When their creative director called us and asked us to be a part of this project, it was a no brainer," he said.

The Lititz-based company was not compensated for the project but took part as a favor to U2.

Fairorth also wanted to participate because Tait Towers has provided staging and scenery used on every continent except Antarctica.

So the proposal offered a chance to boldly go to one of the few places his company had not gone before.

"My only request was I wanted to talk to a rocket scientist," he said. "That was mandatory. I wanted to be able to say I worked with a rocket scientist."

Enter Dylan Mathis.

Although he's not technically a rocket scientist, he does work for NASA.

He's mass communications lead for the International Space Station program office at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"NASA has been working with U2 for several years on and off, doing different types of outreach on the benefits of space and space exploration," Mathis said.

"Both U2 and NASA share a mission of improving life here on Earth and also promoting our programs."

U2's creative director hooked Mathis up with Fairorth, and the two began exchanging emails and phone calls to discuss the project.

Although NASA had worked with U2 on space videos before, this one had a twist, Mathis said.

"This was the first time we used props," he said, and not just "talking heads."

Since the Endeavour was going to the space station, the idea was to have Kelly go into the space station's cupola and have him release a word at a time, letting each float away in weightlessness.

It seemed like a simple idea, but the project presented a few challenges.

"We had a very tight timeline," said Mathis. "There wasn't much room for change because if the shuttle is ready to launch, we launch."

Tait Towers envisioned using some type of exotic material for the space-bound words, said Brianna Kelly, the firm's graphic designer.

(She's not related to Commander Kelly.)

"We were ready to go all out, but NASA said just use paper," she recalled.

So Kelly pulled regular cardstock from the Tait Towers' storeroom and made three sets of the words, as NASA specified.

Because the words were cut out with a laser engraver, though, NASA wondered if the words' charred edges were flammable.

So Kelly cut a fourth set the old-fashioned way — with an X-Acto knife. It took her four more hours.

U2 lighting designer Willie Williams then added shading around each letter to create a 3-D effect.

Satisfying NASA was no easy task.

Tait Towers needed to supply multiple sets of words to NASA so the agency could test them for safety.

Not only did the agency have questions about the laser burns on the words' edges, it also checked the type and source of the paper.

"You might think it would be really easy to get letters to float in space, but you are actually very limited in terms of weight, size and materials used," Fairorth said.

Fairorth said NASA ultimately determined the laser-cut words were safe to fly.

But Tait Towers doesn't know which of its four sets of words ended up aboard the Endeavour, Kelly said.

Making a set of words that would pass muster wasn't the only hurdle facing the project.

The partners also had to hope that the flight would go as planned, because the video was not a priority of the mission.

It was shot during Commander Kelly's free time on May 23 and 24, Fairorth said.

"So if anything had changed on board or his free time had been compromised, he wouldn't have been able to do it."

In the end, Tait Towers, U2 and NASA ended up pulling off a successful project that has been well-received at U2's concerts, Mathis said.

(You can check out the video on YouTube by searching for "Mark Kelly" and "U2.")

"Based on feedback we've heard, everything is very positive. The crowd at the concerts is really excited and interested in the video," Mathis said.

Since U2 concerts draw fans from a broad range of ages, Mathis said the video helps accomplish two of the agency's goals.

It interests young people in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and it reminds older fans of the benefits of the space program, he said.

For Fairorth, the project was especially fulfilling because of the story of Commander Kelly and his wife.

She is U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in a shooting in January.

Giffords chose the song "Beautiful Day" as the wakeup call received by the astronauts aboard Endeavour, because the song had special meaning to her family.

"We loved the relationship of the astronaut and his wife and the underlying story of this space mission," Fairorth said.

"To be a part of that — even in the smallest way — was worth it to us. We wanted to be a part of that story."

Business Editor Tim Mekeel contributed to this story.