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News Release For Immediate Release
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Vienna, VA, October 7, 1997 — SPACEHAB, Inc., (NASDAQ: SPAB), the global leader supporting human activity in space and a major provider of support services to manned and unmanned space payloads, announces the appointment of Penelope Longbottom as Vice President, Corporate Communications. Longbottom, who reports to SPACEHAB President and Chief Operating Officer, Chester M. Lee, is responsible for media and public relations and for supporting the Company's business and marketing strategies through integrated communications initiatives. She joins SPACEHAB following twelve years with Hughes Electronics Corp. (HE), where she held senior communications management positions with its Hughes Communications and DIRECTV International units. Dr. Shelley A. Harrison, SPACEHAB Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, announced Longbottom's executive appointment. "We are very pleased to welcome Penelope to the SPACEHAB family," he said. "Her extensive public affairs and corporate communications experience with Hughes, combined with her recent 18-month service as Chairman of the Satellite Industry Association in Washington, D.C., significantly strengthens our senior management team." He added: "Penelope's professional expertise and experience is directly in line to support SPACEHAB's strategic objective to be the global leader in providing products and services to the commercial space technology industry worldwide." SPACEHAB is the first company to commercially develop, own and operate pressurized habitable modules that provide space-based laboratory research facilities and cargo services aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle system. SPACEHAB Modules have flown on nine successful Space Shuttle science and logistics missions since June 1993. In February 1997, SPACEHAB diversified its business with the acquisition of ASTROTECH, the leading provider of commercial satellite payload processing facilities and related services in the United States. This acquisition expanded SPACEHAB's activities to encompass both the human space flight and satellite launch industries, targeting two primary markets: microgravity and life sciences research and space support services. Immediately prior to joining SPACEHAB, Longbottom was vice president, Communications and Brand Management, for Hughes Electronics' DIRECTV International unit, a position she held since DTVI's inception in January 1996. Joining Hughes in 1985, she was a principal architect in shaping the identity and heading external and internal communications for Hughes Communications, Inc., the world's leading private satellite operator, which has since merged with PanAmSat. Early in 1995, Longbottom was instrumental in the formation of the Satellite Industry Association (SIA), the first trade group dedicated to representing pressing policy and trade issues facing the U.S. commercial satellite industry. She was elected SIA's founding chairman in April, 1995, a seat she held until December 1996. Prior to joining Hughes, Longbottom held senior communications management positions with Toyota Motor Sales, USA and the National Automobile Dealers Association in Washington, D.C. |