AeroAstro, a leading provider of
miniature satellites and related technology products, has been awarded the
Virginia Vanguard Award from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, recognizing its
position as the fastest-growing technology company in the Commonwealth. This
marks the second consecutive year AeroAstro has been named to Virginia’s
Fantastic 50 list and its first year as a Virginia Vanguard Award winner.
These achievements recognize the significant growth AeroAstro has experienced
in recent years through the award of several significant contracts, including
STPSat-1, AeroAstro’s largest spacecraft development contract.

Each year, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce highlights Virginia’s fifty
fastest-growing companies on a statewide basis, bestowing Virginia’s most
prestigious award for small, entrepreneurial companies — Virginia’s Fantastic
50 Awards. Of these top fifty companies, those with the highest growth rates
in each of four sectors — technology, retail/wholesale, manufacturing, and
services — as well as those with the highest revenues and highest growth
rates overall, are honored as Virginia Vanguard Award winners.

Virginia’s Fantastic 50 award program is sponsored by the Virginia
Chamber, Virginia Business Magazine, Goodman and Company, SunTrust Bank and
Westfields Marriott, and is open to all privately held companies headquartered
in Virginia. The honor roll of winners demonstrates the great diversity and
vitality of business enterprises in Virginia. Companies are ranked by four-
year total growth rates (from 1999 through 2002 for the current awards). They
must also demonstrate positive net income and positive revenue growth in their
most recent fiscal year compared to their previous year. With an overall
four-year growth rate of greater than 1500%, AeroAstro rose to the top of the
list in the technology sector this year.

AeroAstro, Inc. is a leader in the emerging field of miniature spacecraft,
innovating applications in science, remote sensing, and communications. The
company’s focus is opening the space frontier to a larger and more diverse
community of users. AeroAstro manufactures complete spacecraft and components
that are used in its own systems and for spacecraft developed by other
institutions in the US and abroad. NASA, the US Air Force, commercial and
academic customers have all relied on AeroAstro spacecraft and components over
our 15-year history. For more information about AeroAstro visit
http://www.aeroastro.com/.