SPACEHAB, Inc., 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.(TM), brings space into homes and classrooms worldwide via
interactive education programs through STARS Academy
(http://www.starsacademy.com ), and space merchandise from The Space Store
(http://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.