SPACEHAB, Inc. a
leading provider of space services, and its strategic partner S.P. Korolev
Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia, Russia’s largest aerospace
company, have formed a Space Station Enterprise (SSE) LLC under which the two
companies will build and own the Enterprise(TM) commercial space station
habitat.
SPACEHAB Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Shelley A.
Harrison and RSC-Energia President Dr. Yury P. Semenov signed final agreements
October 12.
Officials of SPACEHAB and its subsidiary Space Media, Inc.(TM) also
discussed other business opportunities with Dr. Semenov, including ways in
which their companies might help MirCorp meet its contractual obligations
aboard the International Space Station (ISS) if the Russian space station Mir
is de-orbited as expected.
Mir may have to be brought back to Earth in
February 2000, near its 15th anniversary in space, because its orbit is
degrading.
In addition to serving as president of RSC-Energia, Dr. Semenov is
Chairman of MirCorp.
RSC-Energia holds 60 percent ownership in MirCorp.
Josef Kind, president of the Space Infrastructure Division of Astrium
GmbH, the pan-European aerospace company, also announced last week that
Astrium has decided to make a strategic investment in Space Media.
Astrium is
already in the process of recruiting customers for Space Media.
Mr. Kind is a member of Astrium’s Executive Board of Directors and of
SPACEHAB’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Semenov was elected to SPACEHAB’s Board of
Directors on October 12.
“We are very pleased to complete these LLC agreements, which signal our
long-term commitment to this project,” said Dr. Harrison.
“Strengthening and
expanding our partnership with Energia will enable both companies to advance
the development of space commerce on the International Space Station.”
Enterprise is a commercial space station habitat module that will be
attached to the Russian segment of the ISS.
It is scheduled to launch in
early 2003.
SPACEHAB and its strategic partner RSC-Energia initially agreed
to develop Enterprise as a joint endeavor in December 1999.
The Enterprise
LLC formalizes this partnership.
In August, Space Media 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.
In a related development, SPACEHAB and RSC-Energia received public
recognition for innovative design work on Enterprise in the form of a 2001
Design & Engineering Award from Popular Mechanics, a magazine with a
readership of nine million.
Popular Mechanics Editor-in-Chief Joe Oldham
presented the award to SPACEHAB’s Dr. Harrison and Energia’s Dr. Semenov in a
ceremony at SPACEHAB headquarters on October 11.
This awards program has
become “one of the most prestigious forms of recognition for achievement in
design innovation,” according to Oldham.
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 full-scale 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(TM), 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.
Also see http://www.spacehab.com for more information on Enterprise.