FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPACEHAB'S ASTROTECH CLOSES $20 MILLION FINANCING WITH SOUTHTRUST BANK
September
10, 2001, Washington, D.C. - SPACEHAB, Inc. (NASDAQ/NMS: SPAB), a leading provider of commercial space
services, today announced that its Astrotech Space Operations subsidiary has
completed a $20 million financing of its satellite processing facility expansion
project in Titusville, Florida. The expanded facility, targeted for completion
in October 2001, will accommodate larger satellites for launch on next-generation
Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs): Lockheed Martin's Atlas V and Boeing's
Delta IV. SouthTrust Bank, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is providing
the financing.
Proceeds will further enable early retirement of Astrotech's remaining $3 million debt to the CIT Group/Equipment Financing, Inc., and replacement of a portion of SPACEHAB's working capital now invested in the facility. Astrotech's long-term contracts with Boeing and Lockheed Martin to process satellites for launch from Florida now represent $85.3 million in guaranteed minimum revenue for the company through 2010.
Astrotech supports final launch site testing, propellant loading, encapsulation, and launch countdown operations for satellites at company-owned facilities in Titusville and at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and at Boeing Sea Launch facilities in California. It has processed more than 100 payloads to date at the Florida facility. Astrotech's expansion project will increase its Florida processing facilities by 75 percent, from 90,000 to 160,000 square feet, encompassing over 62 acres. New and unique processing and encapsulation bays at this site will enable simultaneous processing of multiple satellites.
The newly expanded facility will accommodate satellites that are increasing in size from four to five meters in diameter and from 6,000 to more than 10,000 pounds (payload fairings are increasing from 37 to 75 feet in length). The expanded facility will be the only satellite processing complex at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station specifically designed to accommodate five-meter payload fairings for Atlas V and Delta IV missions. "With our expansion complete, we anticipate that our payload processing rate could increase from our average of eight per year over the past 10 years to more than 15 per year," said Astrotech Senior Vice President and General Manager John B. Satrom.
Since its establishment in 1981, Astrotech has been at the forefront of the commercial space industry. SPACEHAB acquired the company in 1997.
Founded in 1984, with more
than $100 million in annual revenue, SPACEHAB, Inc., is a leading provider of
commercial space services. The company develops, owns, and operates habitat
and laboratory modules and cargo carriers flown aboard NASA's Space Shuttles.
Its Johnson Engineering subsidiary supports astronaut training and space station
configuration management 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 California and Florida.
SPACEHAB's newest strategic growth initiative, SPACEHAB Huntsville, will provide
customer-focused end-to-end services to the space research community at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. SPACEHAB subsidiary Space
Media, Inc.™, brings space into homes and classrooms worldwide via interactive
education programs through STARS Academy (www.starsacademy.com),
and space merchandise from The Space Store (www.thespacestore.com).
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, contact:
Linda Billings
Director of Communications
SPACEHAB, Inc. - Washington Office
Phone 202/488-3500 x. 201
Fax 202/488-8251
billings@hqspacehab.com