Under the terms of the agreement, Muniz Engineering, Inc., through its Department of Defense (DoD) Shuttle/ISS Payload Support Contract (DPSC), will pay the Washington-based commercial space services provider $315,000 for flight of the Satellite Threat Warning and Attack Reporting (STW/AR) payload mounted on SPACEHAB's new, Quick External Science Tray (QUEST). The contract is SPACEHAB's first with Muniz Engineering, Inc. and the Air Force and includes the lease of a QUEST cell and all the associated payload integration and operations services.

The mission, STS-107, is scheduled to be the Shuttle fleet's first dedicated research flight during the five-year-long process of International Space Station assembly. STS-107 also will be the maiden voyage of SPACEHAB's Research Double Module, which nearly quadruples the amount of living and working space for astronauts aboard the Shuttle. The Company's cargo-carrying, or logistics, modules, meanwhile, are being used by NASA to perform the first two supply missions to the space station in May and December 1999. QUEST is a new capability developed by SPACEHAB to standardize external payload interfaces in much the same way NASA's Middeck lockers have standardized payload accommodations inside the Space Shuttle.

This agreement, signed March 23,1999, was worked closely with the Air Force prime contractor, Muniz Engineering, for the flight of DoD payloads on the Space Shuttle. Muniz provides the DoD with all aspects of payload integration including development of formal Space Shuttle Program (SSP) and International Space Station (ISS) integration activities, systems engineering, flight safety certification, mission planning and analysis, and mission assurance. MEI also provides technical, management, and administrative services as a prime contractor to NASA and as a subcontractor to several aerospace and commercial companies.

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's subsidiaries support NASA astronaut training and all major commercial satellite launches from the United States.