Future in the past

Would is here the simple conditional, but the operative condition does not appear in the context you provided. In other words, your context doesn't explain why the specified devices (?) might be chosen.

You can read Wikipedia's explanation of the use of the conditional by clicking here.

Hope this will provide enough context:

The JSC planners assumed that six Orbital Flight Test (OFT) missions would precede the first operational Shuttle flight. The OFT flights would see two-man crews (Commander and Pilot) put Orbiter Vehicle (OV)-102 through its paces in low-Earth orbit. The planners did not include the OFT schedule in their document, but the 30 May 1980 launch date for their first operational Shuttle mission suggests that they based their flight schedule on the March 1979 first OFT mission date.

Thirteen of the 16 operational flights would use OV-102 and three would use OV-101. NASA would christen OV-102 Columbia in February 1979, shortly before it rolled out of the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale, California. As for OV-101, its name had been changed from Constitution to Enterprise in mid-1976 at the insistence of Star Trek fans (image at top of post). Enterprise flew in Approach and Landing Test (ALT) flights at Edwards Air Force Base in California beginning on 15 February 1977. ALT flights, which saw the Orbiter carried by and dropped from a modified 747, ended soon after the JSC planners released their document.

OK, this is actually rather simple. The "future in the past" is expressed simply as these descriptions applying, if and when the planned program were put into effect. In several other words, NASA is saying "This is what we plan, and this is how the plan would (in the future) proceed if it were adopted."

Edit: The condition to be met is the implementation of the plan.

I'm not completely sure that you understand this grammatical structure "future would in the past". If you do, then the only person's time wasted will be mine, right, Luke?

This grammatical structure is used when we are relating past events. It's used to place one event ahead in time of another event.

Let's do some examples.

Abraham Lincoln debated Douglas in a series of debates in 1858. Two years later he would be elected president of the United States. Less than a year after that, he would be shot dead while attending a play at Ford Theater.

[Example only, not historically accurate]

My parents met when they were young teens. Ten years later they would wed on the same day that they first met each other.

Luke was given the task of using 'would for the future in the past' by his teacher in his Friday [April 20] class. Three days later, he would post a question at Able2Know.