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SPACEHAB MAKES MAJOR INVESTMENT IN COMMERCIAL SPACE;
ASTROTECH EXPANSION AIDS FLORIDA SPACE COAST GROWTH

Washington, DC, November 19, 1999 — SPACEHAB, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPAB) is strengthening its position as a supplier of commercial space services by expanding the Titusville, Florida, facilities of its wholly owned subsidiary Astrotech Space Operations. At a groundbreaking ceremony for a new payload processing facility that will double Astrotech's Florida operations, U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL-15), cited the strategic importance of this expansion to the competitive position of Florida's Space Coast in the global space launch market. "What we are seeing here," said Rep. Weldon at the November 12 event, "and what I believe is so critical to our future in commercial space, is the emergence and expansion of a commercial space supplier market - the second and third tier commercial service providers that are so important to introducing and maintaining market efficiency."

(Rep. Weldon is Vice Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science Committee and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Aviation and Space Caucus. As an advocate for issues relating to space commercialization, he has sponsored legislation to upgrade launch ranges and provide indemnification coverage for commercial launch companies, and he was instrumental in getting the Commercial Space Act passed into law.)

"All of us here are committed to making Florida the place for space," Astrotech President George Baker said at the groundbreaking, "and Astrotech is particularly committed to helping to attract more commercial and government launch business by providing state-of-the art payload processing facilities." State and federal officials in Florida recently formed a Spaceport Management Council to develop a five-year space transportation plan for the state. Since 1985, Astrotech, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPAB), has processed over 100 satellites launched from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kennedy Space Center and the U.S. Air Force's Cape Canaveral Air Station.

Astrotech's new facility, a $30 million project slated for completion in 2001, will increase the company's total processing space by 75 percent, adding 70,000 square feet for handling larger satellites and payload fairings associated with Boeing's Delta IV and Lockheed Martin's Atlas V evolved expendable launch vehicles (EELVs). Both launch developers recently awarded Astrotech multi-year EELV payload processing contracts; Astrotech is now committed to processing payloads for Boeing through 2010 and for Lockheed Martin through 2005 (with contract options through 2010). Astrotech estimates that EELV payload processing at the new facility will raise Florida's commercial launch rate from 10-12 to 16-18 missions per year.

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 resupply aboard NASA's Space Shuttles. The company also supports NASA astronaut training at Johnson Space Center, Houston.