Astrotech Space
Operations, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB, Inc.
has successfully completed the inaugural launch of
its new Oriole suborbital launch vehicle.

The Oriole sounding rocket lifted off at 6:25 a.m. EDT on July 7
from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s)
Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The demonstration flight lasted
approximately 10 minutes, achieving a maximum altitude of 229 miles
(368.5 kilometers) and a maximum range of 330 miles (531 km).

The Oriole flew a ballistic flight path before impact in the
Atlantic Ocean as planned (see
http://www.spacehab.com/astrotech/oriole/ to view a video of the
launch).

Astrotech developed the Oriole as a next-generation sounding
rocket for launching scientific and commercial payloads and as a
target vehicle for Theater Missile Defense system testing. The company
is marketing the vehicle to government and commercial users.

The Oriole is the first privately developed sounding rocket in
U.S. history and the first new suborbital launch system developed in
the last 25 years.

“All systems on the vehicle performed flawlessly,” Astrotech Vice
President for Suborbital Programs Wayne Montag reported after the
launch. “The Oriole’s performance and flight environment exceeded
expectations.”

“The Oriole is evidence of SPACEHAB’s intent to expand its line of
space services to meet the needs of customers who require access to
space,” said SPACEHAB Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Shelley
A. Harrison. “It also embodies the technical excellence that enables
us to maintain a leadership position in space commerce.”

Sounding rockets fly a ballistic flight profile, providing several
minutes of useful microgravity environment for payloads at low cost
without entering Earth orbit. (The Oriole can provide six to nine
minutes of microgravity.) The Oriole’s flight demonstration payload
was a set of instruments intended to validate vehicle performance and
verify the predicted flight environment.

The flight also successfully demonstrated operation of the
rocket’s mechanical despin and payload separation systems. The Oriole
did not carry a commercial payload on this demonstration launch.
Astrotech is now conducting a detailed evaluation of flight
instrumentation and radar data.

The Oriole rocket system includes a propulsion system, tail
assembly, vehicle service module, and booster interstage structure.
The rocket is designed for launch in a single-stage or two-stage
configuration. The Oriole demonstration flight vehicle was a two-stage
configuration consisting of a Terrier Mark-12 surplus military
booster, provided by NASA, and the Oriole stage built by Astrotech.

The Oriole stage is powered by a solid rocket motor developed by
Alliant Missile Products Company of Rocket Center, West Virginia,
under contract to Astrotech. A successful static firing of this
propulsion system took place April 20 at Alliant’s West Virginia test
range.

Astrotech provides commercial space services through its Sounding
Rocket and Payload Processing divisions. Astrotech’s Payload
Processing division provides commercial satellite processing services
for Boeing’s Delta and Lockheed Martin’s Atlas launch vehicles in
North America. Since its establishment in 1981, Astrotech has been at
the forefront of the commercial space industry.

Founded in 1984 and with more than $100 million in annual revenue,
Astrotech’s parent company SPACEHAB, Inc., is a leading provider of
commercial space services. SPACEHAB is the first company to
commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules that provide
laboratory facilities and logistics resupply aboard NASA’s Space
Shuttles.

The company also supports NASA astronaut training at the Johnson
Space Center in Houston, Texas.

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.

July 2000

Oriole Suborbital Launch Vehicle

Fact Sheet

The Oriole suborbital launch vehicle (sounding rocket) has been
designed and developed by Astrotech Space Operations, a wholly owned
subsidiary of SPACEHAB, Inc., as the next-generation launch system for
scientific and microgravity research payloads and medium-fidelity
theater missile defense targets. The Oriole is designed for launch in
a single-stage or two-stage configuration.

The rocket includes a propulsion system, tail assembly, vehicle
service module, and booster interstage structure.

The Oriole’s GEM 22 graphite-epoxy-motor propulsion system is a
solid rocket motor developed by Alliant Missile Products Company of
Rocket Center, West Virginia, under contract to Astrotech. The GEM 22
is an outgrowth of the highly successful GEM 40, 50 and 60 Delta
strap-on solid rocket motor series and the Extended Range Patriot
missile system.

A successful static firing of the GEM 22 took place April 20,
2000, at Alliant’s Rocket Center test range.

The Oriole’s tail assembly consists of a “tail can” and four
double-wedge fins. The tail-can structure, designed to accommodate
booster thrust loads to 100,000 pounds of force (lbf), is manufactured
by Anderson Metals, Inc., of Franklin, Pennsylvania. The fins,
produced at Lymington Precision Machining under contract to Sounding
Rocket Services, Ltd., of Bristol Filton, U.K., are successors to
technology proven in the British Skylark sounding rocket program.

The vehicle service module, fabricated by Ideas, Inc. of
Beltsville, Maryland, under contract to Astrotech, houses electronic
and mechanical subsystems that provide stage ignition, vehicle despin
and payload separation. The Terrier booster interstage adapter is
fabricated by Danko Arlington, Inc., of Baltimore, Maryland.

The Oriole demonstration flight vehicle was a spin-stabilized
two-stage configuration consisting of a Terrier Mark-12 boost stage,
provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center through the agency’s
sounding rocket operations contractor Litton PRC, and the Oriole stage
developed by Astrotech. The demonstration flight payload was a set of
instruments that gathered vehicle performance and launch environment
data during the powered phase of the flight.

Terrier MK-12 Boost Stage

  • Length: 155 inches (3.94 meters)
  • Diameter: 18 in. (0.457 m)
  • Propellant: cartridge-loaded double-base

nitrocellulose

  • Propellant weight: 1200 pounds mass (536 kilograms)
  • Average sea-level thrust: 55,000 pounds force (244.6

kilonewtons)

Oriole Second Stage

  • Length: 156 in. (3.96 m)
  • Diameter: 22 in. (0.56 m)
  • Propellant: Alliant QDL hydroxyl-terminated

polybutadene (HTPB)

  • Propellant weight: 2160 lbm (980 kg)
  • Average vacuum thrust: 20,700 lbf (92.1k N) 


	   Payload gross mass: 696.4 lbm (316 kg)
	   Vehicle liftoff weight: 5,321 lbm (2,359 kg)
	   Vehicle burnout weight: 1,200 lbm (544 kg)

Flight Trajectory

  • Nominal launch elevation: 78.5 degrees (actual)
  • Nominal launch azimuth: 130 degrees (actual)
  • Burnout velocity, Stage 1: 1377 ft/sec (420 m/sec)
  • (estimated)
  • Burnout velocity, Stage 2: 8587 ft/sec (2538 m/sec)
  • (estimated)

Apogee altitude: 229 mi. (368.5 km) (actual)

Apogee time: 315.2 sec (5.25 min.) (actual)

Impact range 

	           --  Terrier booster: 1.1 mi. (1.8 km) (actual)
	           --  Oriole motor/payload: 330 mi. (531 km) (actual)

Impact time 

	           --  Terrier booster: 61 sec. (1.02 min.) (actual)
	           --  Oriole motor: 606.5 sec. (10.11 min.) (actual)

Astrotech Space Operations

Astrotech Space Operations, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB,
Inc., provides commercial space services through its Payload
Processing and Sounding Rocket divisions. Since its establishment in
1981, Astrotech has been at the forefront of the commercial space
industry.

Astrotech’s Payload Processing Division offers customers a
commercial alternative to using government payload processing
facilities. Astrotech’s facilities support launches from Kennedy Space
Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California.

Astrotech provides services on a firm fixed-price basis. Astrotech
has supported the processing of over 150 major payloads to date.

Astrotech’s Florida Payload Processing Facility is located on a
62-acre tract three miles west of Kennedy Space Center in Titusville,
adjacent to the Spacecoast Regional Airport. This facility includes
buildings dedicated to spacecraft nonhazardous processing, hazardous
processing, payload storage, warehouse storage and customer offices. A
$25 million expansion of Astrotech’s Florida facility is under way.

Slated for completion in 2001, this expansion will increase the
company’s processing space by over 50 percent, adding 50,000 square
feet for handling larger satellites and payload fairings associated
with Boeing’s Delta IV and Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V launch vehicles.
Both customers recently awarded Astrotech multi-year extensions to
their payload processing contracts.

Astrotech is now committed to processing payloads for Boeing
through 2010 and for Lockheed Martin through 2005 (with contract
options through 2010).

Astrotech also operates a full-service facility for processing
satellites and upper stages at Vandenberg Air Force Base in
California. This 60-acre site supports Atlas, Delta, Pegasus, and
Taurus launches. In addition to providing services at company-owned
facilities, Astrotech provides payload processing for the Sea Launch
program at facilities in Long Beach, California, under contract to
United States Sea Launch.

Astrotech’s payload processing services include support for
spacecraft final mechanical assembly, electrical checkout, liquid
propellant loading, solid rocket motor/ordnance installation, payload
fairing encapsulation, transport to the launch pad, and remote payload
command and control through countdown.

The company offers a no-fault, no-subrogation, inter-party waiver
of liability; a simplified contracting process; and multiple-launch
discounts. Based upon years of experience, Astrotech can meet today’s
payload processing requirements while preparing to meet increasing
demand.