The developing photovoltaic market for civilian communications satellites has caused a reassessment of the traditional single-crystal cells used in space. Thin-him cells mounted on metal foil substrates offer considerable weight, manufacturing, and radiation resistance advantages. These same cells can solve the manufacturing problems of glass breakage and temperature uniformity in cells intended for terrestrial applications. This paper describes work on a back-wall CdS/CdTe cell on molybdenum foils. Large grained adherent films of CdTe are formed. A thin interlayer of Cu and Te between the CdTe and the molybdenum formed a low resistance (less than 1 Ohm cm(2)) ohmic contact. The cell is completed with a sputtered indium tin oxide top contact layer and a V-oc of 580 mV was obtained.