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Glenn Shuttle Research Now in Hands
of Ground-based Scientists Vienna, VA, November 12, 1998 — Science experiments performed by Senator John Glenn and his Space Shuttle Discovery crewmates in SPACEHAB, Inc.'s laboratory module were returned this week to ground-based researchers eager to assess data from the successful NASA mission, STS-95. Many of the 80-plus life science and microgravity experiments conducted aboard Discovery and now being analyzed were performed in a $50 million, reusable research facility built and owned by SPACEHAB (Nasdaq–SPAB), a publicly traded space services provider based outside Washington, D.C. While universally recognized as Senator John Glenn's return voyage to space, Discovery's historic nine-day mission also marked the 12th spaceflight of SPACEHAB pressurized research and/or cargo modules. SPACEHAB's Research Single Module was the primary payload aboard STS-95 and served as the habitable laboratory in which Discovery astronauts performed experiments ranging from human cell growth and pharmaceutical research to development of advanced materials that could lead to more powerful electronics and faster computers. "SPACEHAB was thrilled to have been a part of NASA's historic mission STS-95," SPACEHAB President David A. Rossi said recently. "But as Senator Glenn himself stated shortly after landing: now the really hard work begins." Scientists will spend the next several months poring over reams of data amassed during Discovery's low-Earth orbit sojourn. Meanwhile, as researchers begin to digest mission results and Senator Glenn undergoes medical testing by NASA doctors, SPACEHAB technicians already are turning their attention to the Company's next mission: STS-96, a May 1999 re-supply flight to the International Space Station (ISS). On-orbit assembly of the ISS is slated to begin later this month. As the leading commercial services company supporting manned and unmanned space missions, SPACEHAB has invested more than $250 million of its own capital to design, build and maintain a fleet of modules that more than double the amount of living and working space astronauts enjoy aboard the Space Shuttles. SPACEHAB modules, which have supported five Shuttle science missions and seven cargo-delivery missions to the Russian space station Mir, already are slated for use on the first two ISS re-supply flights. SPACEHAB, with its Johnson Engineering and Astrotech subsidiaries, is the world's leading provider of commercial payload processing services for manned and unmanned payloads. SPACEHAB is the first company to commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules that provide laboratory facilities and logistics re-supply aboard NASA's Space Shuttles. The Company also supports NASA astronaut training at Johnson Space Center, Houston. For Immediate Release |