SPACEHAB TO BUILD
FIRST COMMERCIAL HABITAT IN ORBIT
EnterpriseTM
Module and Space Station Internet Media Company Will Take Space Commerce
to New Heights
Washington, DC,
December 10, 1999 SPACEHAB, Inc.
(Nasdaq: SPAB) today announced an historic agreement with RSC Energia
of Korolev, Russia, to establish the first permanent commercial presence
in space. SPACEHAB and Energia will build a pressurized module, named
Enterprise, which will be attached to the International Space Station
(ISS). Enterprise will be manned and dedicated to servicing a myriad
of commercial mass markets on Earth.
"Among our new businesses
will be the first independent commercial television and Internet Web-site
broadcasts from space," said Dr. Shelley Harrison, SPACEHAB's Chairman.
"We will also expand our highly successful S*T*A*R*S space and science
education program from the Space Shuttle to Enterprise, targeting
millions of youngsters around the world."
"SPACEHAB will provide
a unique blend of space-originated news, information, education, entertainment
programming and business advertising and promotion, broadcasting from
Enterprise to Earth TV and Internet links as it orbits the Earth every
90 minutes," said Dr. Harrison.
SPACEHAB is the first
company to own and operate commercial space habitation modules, flown
on NASA Space Shuttles to increase pressurized volume in which astronauts
can live and work. U.S. Senator John Glenn performed research in a
SPACEHAB Research Module upon his return to space in October 1998
aboard the Shuttle Discovery. (Glenn's flight was SPACEHAB's fifth
Shuttle research mission.) SPACEHAB Logistics Modules supported seven
critical resupply missions to the Russian space station Mir and the
first resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). RSC
(Rocket Space Corporation) Energia is the leading Russian corporation
in manned space operations, spacecraft, space stations, launch vehicles,
communications satellites, R&D, manufacturing and launch operations,
with experience from Sputnik to Mir and now the ISS.
The new pressurized
space module Enterprise, which will be attached to the Russian portion
of the ISS, will house a broadcast station and a research laboratory
in which company-sponsored microgravity experiments targeting new
biotech and advanced materials products and processes will be conducted.
SPACEHAB officials estimate that it will cost approximately $100 million
to develop Enterprise and establish the space media company. SPACEHAB
will raise private financing for its portion of this endeavor. Energia
will construct Enterprise and coordinate with the Russian Space Agency
(RSA). RSA will provide launch services and other resources to the
enterprise.
"Our long-term strategic
partners Daimler Chrysler Aerospace (DASA) and Mitsubishi Corporation
are highly supportive of this initiative," said Dr. Harrison. "SPACEHAB's
initiative begins to fulfill the International Partners' objective
of commercializing the ISS," commented DASA President Mr. Josef Kind.
"Enterprise is an
historic project -- the first commercial real estate in orbit," said
SPACEHAB President David Rossi. "This partnership is the first big
step off Planet Earth for private enterprise in space, independent
of government funding, " he said. "The ISS partners have endorsed
greater commercial participation in the space station. As a private
company with 15 years of experience working in manned space and partners
and customers around the world, we are committed to making space commerce
a reality."
SPACEHAB, with its
Johnson Engineering and Astrotech subsidiaries, is the world's leading
provider of commercial payload processing services for manned and
unmanned payloads. The Company also supports NASA astronaut training
at the Johnson Space Center.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION:
Linda
Billings
Media Relations
SPACEHAB,
Inc.
(202)
488-3500, xt. 201
billings@hqspacehab.com
Martin
Gitlin
Financial Relations Board
(212)
661-8030