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SPACEHAB
Signs Contracts for Three New Shuttle Missions
Contracts for
Two Research Flights and a Mission to the International
Space Station
Valued at Minimum of $62 Million
Vienna, Virginia, Dec. 22, 1997 — SPACEHAB Inc. (NASDAQ: SPAB) announced today that NASA has awarded the Company a new contract for the use of SPACEHAB Modules on three upcoming Space Shuttle missions extending over the next three years. The contract includes an option for a fourth mission.
The aggregate value of this NASA contract is $42.8 million for the three firm missions. Further, up to $19 million of additional revenue will be derived from three of NASA's major International Space Station partners: the European Space Agency (ESA), the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), for a total firm contract value of nearly $62 million for the three missions.
SPACEHAB has the potential to increase the value of the contract by approximately $22 million through sales to commercial customers, for a total of approximately $84 million. The option for a fourth mission, if exercised, is valued at a minimum of $15.8 million. If NASA exercises its option and the ISS partners and commercial customers utilize all the available capacity, the total contract would be worth close to $100 million for SPACEHAB.
Dr. Shelley A. Harrison, SPACEHAB Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, hailed the new contract as a vote of confidence in the Company: "Governments of the world are looking for commercial cost-effective solutions by private industry to expand space exploration and development, "he said. "SPACEHAB has pioneered the concept of privately owned and operated space assets. We have performed consistently and successfully on nine missions to date in this demanding market, using assets developed and owned by SPACEHAB and funded through private sector investments."
The first of the contracted missions, STS-95, will carry the SPACEHAB Research Single Module. This will be the inaugural mission in a program to conduct coordinated research among NASA and international partners prior to the advent of the International Space Station. The mission is currently scheduled for launch in October 1998.
The second contracted mission, STS-96, is scheduled for December 1998. It will employ an enhanced version of the SPACEHAB Logistics Double Module in support of the first resupply mission to the International Space Station.
In yet another first for SPACEHAB, the third new mission, STS-107 slated for May 2000, will debut the SPACEHAB Research Double Module. NASA has contracted to use approximately 80% of the available module space for this mission. SPACEHAB will market the remaining 20% directly to other international space agencies and commercial users, giving it potential to generate an additional $22 million in revenues based on current SPACEHAB commercial pricing.
The additional missions assigned to SPACEHAB under the new NASA contract reinforce the Company's innovative leadership in the commercial supply of space services.
SPACEHABs primary revenues are generated from its SPACEHAB Modules, providing integration and operations support services to scientists and researchers whose experiments are carried on the Space Shuttle. The Company is currently performing under an earlier NASA contract for critical logistics resupply missions to the Mir space station. STS-89, employing the Company's Double Logistics Module, is scheduled for launch on Space Shuttle Endeavour in January.
SPACEHAB, Inc., with its ASTROTECH subsidiary, is the world's leading provider of commercial payload processing services for both astronaut-tended and unmanned payloads. SPACEHAB is the first company to commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules that provide space-based laboratory facilities and logistics resupply aboard the U.S. Space Shuttles to support people living and working in space.
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For
more information:
SPACEHAB, Inc.
1595 Spring Hill Road,
Ste. 360
Vienna, Virginia 22182
(703) 821-3000 |