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A single-stage Stirling cooler has been developed and tested for space applications, which include instrument or detector cooling, and a supplemental cooler for the cryogenic system. The mechanical cooler is a free displacer type and consists of a compressor, a cold head and a connecting tube. The features of this cooler are a moving cylinder, clearance seal by diaphragm spring, twin pole magnet system and pneumatically driven displacer. The typical cooling power is 2 W at 80 K and the input power to the cooler is 50 W without driver electronics. The total weight of the cooler is 4.2 kg. The engineering and the flight models of the cooler have been fabricated and evaluated to verify the capability for three space missions. This paper describes the design of the cooler and the results from verification tests including cooler performance test, thermal vacuum test, vibration test and lifetime test. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]