Five insightful leaders formed an engineering consulting firm in 1973, to support NASA on various small-scale government contracts. Over the next several years, the contracts grew in scale as did this ambitious company. These contracts ranged from the categorization of 16mm movie film taken during the Skylab missions, to a 1996 fabrication contract with JSC which history would show, branded the company as a provider of specialized, high-end fabrication services.

In 1983, one of the five founding engineers, Dale Johnson, acquired single ownership of the company, and named it Johnson Engineering (JE). The company branched out into the private sector, including universities, hospitals, and high tech companies, for specialized engineering support needs and studies, such as development of remote controlled vehicles. But it seemed the heart of JE continued on with NASA, as in 1986, JE won the JSC contract to build mockups and trainers for a second time. Over the years, this contract would evolve throughout the development and buildout of JSC's marquis facility, the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL). JE was instrumental in the development of the facility's hyperbaric chamber, the diver voice communication system, and through a separate contract, the Shuttle and Space Station Remote Manipulator Systems (SRMS and SSRMS). Also, during this time period, specifically 1994, JE was purchased by Tom Short, moon-walker Eugene Cernan, and Bill Jackson. For 10 years, JE was also charged with the maintenance and operations of the world-class, complex NBL facility as well as the Space Vehicle and Mockup Facility (SVMF) where the majority of astronaut training takes place.

In 1997, SPACEHAB acquired the NASA 'Contractor of Excellence', JE, and the company continued to provide to NASA with a long list of specialized support services in the areas of stowage and integration, flight decal design and development, human factors engineering, and robotics.

To better streamline the Company's business units' identities, the Johnson Engineering name was changed in April 2003 to SPACEHAB Government Services.