Washington, D.C., February 24, 2000 -- SPACEHAB, Inc. today announced that John M. "Mike" Lounge, currently Executive Vice President of the Company's Johnson Engineering unit, has been named Program Manager for the Company's new Enterprise™ Program.

Enterprise™ is a historic project: this space habitat will be the first commercial real estate in space. SPACEHAB is building Enterprise™ with the Russian aerospace company RSC Energia. Enterprise™ will be docked to the International Space Station (ISS) and equipped for research, stowage, and television and Internet broadcasting.

The broadcast studio on Enterprise™ will be the first of its kind, dedicated to producing original informational, educational and entertainment programming live from orbit. Enterprise™ will extend SPACEHAB's traditional businesses of microgravity research support and space station services from the Space Shuttle to the ISS and initiate its long-term strategy of addressing mass markets through broadcasting from space. Worldwide interest in space activities should provide substantial opportunities for advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.

As Enterprise™ Program Manager, Lounge will manage contracts and joint agreements with Energia and others as required and work with potential customers to validate and implement system requirements. Lounge joined SPACEHAB in 1991 as Director of Operations and served as the Company's initial Shuttle-Mir Program Manager from 1994 to 1995. He headed up all SPACEHAB new hardware development activity as Vice President of Flight Systems Development from 1996 through 1999.

Lounge has a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy (1969) and an M.S. in astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado (1970). He served in the U.S. Navy from 1970 to 1978, completing tours of duty aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise and U.S.S America. Lounge flew numerous combat missions in Vietnam and is the recipient of six Navy Air Medals and three Navy Commendation Medals.

He began his NASA career as a Mission Operations engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston and was selected for the NASA Astronaut class of 1980. He flew three Space Shuttle Missions: STS-51I in 1985, STS-26 in 1988 and STS-35 in 1990.

"With his experience and expertise in space flight, Mike is an invaluable asset. Under his leadership, the Enterprise™ Program is bound to thrive, serving the needs of the Company as well as those of our partners and customers around the world," said SPACEHAB President and Chief Operating Officer David A. Rossi. "Enterprise™ is the first big step off Planet Earth for private enterprise in space, independent of government funding. 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."

Key members of Lounge's Houston-based Enterprise™ team include: Phil Mongan, Business and Operations Development; Pete Gadsby, Enterprise Module Development; Frank Eichstadt, Enterprise Module Architecture; and Bob Harris, Communications and Data Systems.

SPACEHAB is the world's leading provider of commercial payload processing services for manned and unmanned payloads. The Company has flown its research and logistics modules on 13 Space Shuttle missions. With its Johnson Engineering and Astrotech units, SPACEHAB is a global leader in space commerce and the first company to commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules for research and logistics resupply aboard NASA's Space Shuttles.

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