FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPACE
MEDIA LAUNCHES EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENT ON RUSSIAN ROCKET
Project Involves Students Worldwide
The Russian Progress vehicle that carried the STARS "Ecosystems in Space" experiment was launched to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on February 26 with support from RSC Energia. After docking with the ISS, cosmonauts transferred the experiment to their living quarters in the Zvezda service module. The cosmonauts then fastened the small, self-contained ecosystem cylinder, containing the space station's first "pets", above their dining table for observation.
For the next three months, the cosmonauts will monitor the ecosystem's miniature red shrimp (H. rubra) and other aquatic plants and animals to see how organisms adapt to the microgravity environment of space. Video and photographic images will be available to STARS students via the Internet (www.starsprogram.com) within the next two weeks. The students will be able to see images of the Russian launch facility, the Soyuz rocket launch, the crew transferring of the ecosystem, and the organisms adapting to their new environment. Students will also participate in question and answer sessions with the ISS crew.
Collaborating on their research via the Internet-based STARS program, students will compare the on-orbit observations with ecosystem experiments in their classrooms. Former participants in the Earth-based Biosphere 2 ecosystem are serving as advisors to the project, which is designed to explore sustaining human life on other planets and on long-duration spaceflights.
The STARS education program is an online, interactive cultural and scientific exchange program for students aged 8-18. STARS enables young people to achieve a better understanding of the connections between science and art; advance their technological skills; and gain an appreciation of one's culture, history, and tradition while being actively involved in research that makes the world a better place.
Coming this spring, Space Media will introduce its United Nations endorsed STARS Academyä. Designed to draw on the excitement and mystique of space, the STARS Academy will inspire teachers and young explorers as to the thrill that comes from learning when taught in an engaging and inspirational fashion. Each year, the STARS Academy will fly experiments in space, including next year's seven student-designed experiments onboard the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Space Shuttle mission, STS-107.
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 Space Media, Inc. 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:
(Press Kit and B-roll video footage from the ISS STARS experiment is available)
Kimberly Campbell
Director of Marketing
SPACEHAB, Inc.
281.853.1031
campbell@spacehab.com