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News Release
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Leading Commercial Satellite Processor Will Diversify SPACEHAB's Customer and Business Base Vienna, VA, February 6, 1997 — SPACEHAB, Inc., (NASDAQ: SPAB) announced today that it has reached a definitive agreement with Northrop Grumman Corporation to purchase the operating assets of ASTROTECH Space Operations, L.P. ASTROTECH is the premier provider of commercial satellite payload processing services in the United States. Specific terms of the transaction, which is expected to be completed in February, were not disclosed. ASTROTECH had approximately $8 million of revenue in calendar 1996, providing satellite launch-site preparation services for the U.S. commercial space-launch industry. ASTROTECH oversees the satellite final assembly & checkout, solid rocket motor installation, liquid propellant loading, encapsulation in the launch vehicle fairing, transport to the launch pad, and command & control of the satellite during the launch. ASTROTECH provides services using two Company-owned facilities, one of which is located in Titusville, Florida, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center, and the other was recently constructed at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Los Angeles, California. "The acquisition of ASTROTECH will expand SPACEHAB's payload processing capabilities to include services for unmanned launch vehicles, thereby broadening our core business, which has been focused on the Space Shuttle," stated Dr. Shelley A. Harrison, SPACEHAB's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The combination of ASTROTECH and SPACEHAB will bring under common management the largest, most advanced commercial payload processing facilities in the United States, giving SPACEHAB unrivaled capability to support the payload processing needs of commercial, international, and government customers." Chester M. Lee, SPACEHAB's President added, "ASTROTECH will diversify SPACEHAB's customer base while building on our expertise in the commercial space services market. Also, with ASTROTECH's primary facility located in Titusville and the SPACEHAB Payload Processing Facility located nearby in Port Canaveral, we plan to achieve operating efficiencies by combining some payload integration activities." SPACEHAB, Inc., is the first company to commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules that provide space-based laboratory facilities and logistics resupply services aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle to support people living and working in space. Seven SPACEHAB Module missions have been flown on the Space Shuttle fleet. The next SPACEHAB flight is scheduled for May 15, 1997, aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. |