Even from its earliest beginnings, Astrotech was the answer to the growing demand for commercial satellite payload processing facilities and services. Northrup Grumman's Astrotech Space Operations, L.P. opened its facility doors in 1984 providing primarily support services to an increasingly varied customer base, including NASA for its space shuttle payload processing needs. Over the next fifteen years, Astrotech operated from two primary company-owned facilities, Titusville, Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Within these facilities, Astrotech oversaw the satellite final assembly and checkout, solid rocket motor installation, liquid propellant loading, encapsulation, transport to launch pad, and command and control of the satellite during launch.

Seeing that the demand for satellite processing was not subsiding, in 1997 SPACEHAB opted to expand its current shuttle payload processing capabilities to include services for unmanned launch vehicles. SPACEHAB acquired Astrotech that year and the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB, Inc. By the following year, Astrotech had added the Sea Launch payload processing facility in Long Beach, California to its list of operating locations.

When this unique company established long-term contracts with Boeing and Lockheed Martin in 1999 for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) processing, the groundwork was laid for the 2001 major expansion at its Florida facilities to accommodate the larger Delta IV and Atlas V launch vehicles. Valued at $30 million, this expansion, including the five-meter class Spacecraft Processing Facility (SPF), was designed and built specifically to accommodate the EELV payloads, with weights in excess of 25,000 pounds and launch vehicle payload fairings up to 75 feet long.

Astrotech has now supported the processing of more than 200 major payloads and was the fastest growing SPACEHAB subsidiary in the past few years. SPACEHAB's strategy for long-term revenue growth is being implemented at Astrotech, as the Company expands its business in the government sector.