FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ASTROTECH WINS CONTRACT FROM NASA TO PROCESS DUAL-SATELLITE
PAYLOAD FOR VANDENBERG LAUNCH
Washington, D.C., July 31, 2000 - Astrotech Space Operations, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB, Inc. (NASDAQ/NMS: SPAB), today announced that it has received a contract award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to support processing of two earth-observation satellites for launch on a Delta expendable launch vehicle (ELV).
The $479,600 contract, awarded by NASA's Kennedy Space Center, covers launch-site payload-processing services for NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) and Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-C (SAC-C) earth-observation satellites. These spacecraft are scheduled for launch together on a Delta 7320 "Med-Lite" ELV from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) in November.
Astrotech will process these payloads at its Vandenberg AFB facility, a full-service site equipped to support spacecraft processing for Atlas, Delta, Pegasus, and Taurus launches. Astrotech's payload processing services include support for spacecraft final mechanical assembly, electrical checkout, liquid propellant loading, solid rocket motor/ordnance installation, payload fairing encapsulation, transport to the launch pad, and remote payload command and control through countdown.
The EO-1/SAC-C mission is the second of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) program payloads to be processed at Astrotech's Vandenberg AFB facility. Astrotech provided payload processing services for NASA's first EOS mission, designated Terra (formerly EOS-AM-1), launched in December 1999. The total value of Astrotech's contract with NASA for support to the Terra mission was more than $2 million.
The EO-1 spacecraft is an element of NASA's New Millennium Program, designed to conduct space-flight validation of breakthrough technologies for space and Earth science missions. SAC-C is a cooperative NASA-Argentine project.
Astrotech provides commercial space services through its Sounding Rocket and Payload Processing divisions. Astrotech's Payload Processing division provides satellite processing services for the U.S. launch industry, including support for Boeing's Delta program, Lockheed Martin's Atlas program, and Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus and Pegasus programs. Since 1985, over 150 satellites have been processed at Astrotech facilities adjacent to Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and at Vandenberg AFB in California.
Founded in 1984 and with more than $100 million in annual revenue, Astrotech's parent company SPACEHAB, Inc., is a leading provider of commercial space services. 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 in Houston, Texas.
This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, whether the company will fully realize the economic benefits under its NASA and other customer contracts, the timing and mix of Space Shuttle missions, the successful development and commercialization of new space assets, technological difficulties, product demand, timing of new contracts, launches and business, market acceptance risks, the effect of economic conditions, uncertainty in government funding, the impact of competition, and other risks detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Linda
Billings
Director
of Communications
SPACEHAB,
Inc.
202/488-3500;
toll-free 888/647-9543
billings@hqspacehab.com