FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPACEHAB AND ENERGIA RECOGNIZED FOR INNOVATIVE DESIGN WITH
AWARD FOR ENTERPRISE COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION HABITAT
Washington, D.C., October 16, 2000 -- SPACEHAB, Inc. (NASDAQ/NMS: SPAB), and its strategic partner RSC-Energia of Korolev, Russia, have received a 2001 Design & Engineering Award from Popular Mechanics magazine for their Enterprise™ commercial space station habitat project. Enterprise is a joint endeavor of SPACEHAB, a leading provider of commercial space services, and RSC-Energia, Russia's largest aerospace company.
SPACEHAB Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Shelley A. Harrison and RSC-Energia President Dr. Yury P. Semenov accepted the award for Enterprise. Popular Mechanics Editor-in-Chief Joe Oldham and Science Editor Jim Wilson presented the award to the two chief executives at a ceremony held in SPACEHAB's Washington headquarters on October 11.
Popular Mechanics, which has a readership of nine million, issues its annual Design & Engineering Awards to recognize "innovation, invention and exceptionally good ideas" in science and technology, according to Editor-in-Chief Oldham. This awards program has become "one of the most prestigious forms of recognition for achievement in design innovation."
"SPACEHAB and Energia are pleased and proud that our Enterprise project -- which we view as a great leap forward for space technology and space commerce - is receiving this kind of public recognition," said SPACEHAB's Dr. Harrison.
Enterprise is designed to be attached to the Russian side of the International Space Station (ISS). It is scheduled for launch in early 2003. One Enterprise feature that especially impressed the magazine's editors, who choose awardees, is the commercial broadcasting studio that will be installed aboard the habitat. This studio will be used to produce and distribute space-based television and Internet programming.
In August, SPACEHAB subsidiary Space Media, Inc. , formed a partnership with RSC-Energia, called Enermedia LLC, to develop and market space-based multimedia content for television broadcast and Internet distribution first from the Russian service module Zvezda (which is now attached to the ISS) and later from Enterprise, also using materials from Russian space program archives.
Enterprise is one of only eight projects, chosen from among more than 600 nominees, receiving this award. Popular Mechanics will report on Enterprise and other winning projects for 2001 in its December issue.
At the ceremony, Dr. Harrison and Mr. Oldham also discussed their mutual interest in the S*T*A*R*S® (Space Technology And Research Students) global space education program started by SPACEHAB in 1999 and now managed by Space Media. Mr. Oldham indicated that more than a million of his magazine's nine million readers are under age 18. Dr. Harrison pointed out that the S*T*A*R*S program is designed to engage students in this age group, and the magazine's young readers are likely to be interested in getting involved in S*TA*R*S, which enables students to design, develop, and launch space experiments.
Founded in 1984, with more than $100 million in annual revenue, SPACEHAB, Inc., is a leading provider of commercial space services. The company is the first to develop, own, and operate habitat modules and cargo carriers providing laboratory facilities and resupply capabilities aboard NASA's Space Shuttles. It also supports astronaut training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and builds space-flight trainers and mockups. SPACEHAB's Astrotech subsidiary provides commercial satellite processing services at facilities in Florida and California in support of a range of expendable launch vehicles, including Lockheed Martin's Atlas and Boeing's Delta and Sea Launch rockets. SPACEHAB's newest strategic growth initiative, Space Media, Inc. (SMI™, a subsidiary), will bring space into homes and classrooms worldwide with television and Internet broadcasting from the International Space Station.
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;
888/647-9543
billings@hqspacehab.com
Photos available on request