NASA 5-Month Extension Plus 3 Months Options Could Total $23.2 Million

Washington, D.C., May 1, 2002 – SPACEHAB, Inc. (NASDAQ/NMS: SPAB), a leading provider of commercial space services, today announced that NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) has signed a contract extension with SPACEHAB’s Johnson Engineering (JE) subsidiary for approximately $14.2 million.

NASA has approved a five-month extension of JE’s Flight Crew Systems Development contract, covering work from May 1 through September 30, 2002, and worth $14.2 million. JSC also approved options for three one-month contract extensions covering the period from October 1 through December 31, 2002, and worth an additional $9 million in total. The total value of this contract extension will be $23.2 million if NASA exercises all three one-month extension options. The extension provides time for JSC to restructure and recompete the contract. JE will participate in the recompetition to continue providing services covered by the contract.

The five-month extension plus the three one-month extension options raise the total value of the FCSD contract to $391.3 million for the period from May 1993 through December 2002, contingent on the exercise of all option periods.

Flight crew support services provided by JE under the FCSD contract include facility operations, astronaut training, and fabrication of mockups at JSC’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and Space Vehicle Mockup Facility as well as crew station operations, which encompasses human factors engineering and stowage integration for Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions.

In a related development, JE is leveraging its experience in building high-fidelity space vehicle mockups and trainers for NASA’s JSC by developing new business in museum exhibit design engineering and fabrication. JE recently signed its first task order, for approximately $1 million, under a new contract with KK.FTS Group of Japan to build a mockup of the International Space Station laboratory module Destiny for a new museum being built outside Tokyo. The contract with KK.FTS could provide opportunities for JE to build multiple exhibit units for the Japanese museum.

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 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. Additionally, through The Space Store, Space Media provides space merchandise to the public and space enthusiasts worldwide (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.

For more information, contact:

Linda Billings

Director of Communications

SPACEHAB, Inc. – Washington Office

Phone 202/488-3500 x. 201

Fax 202/488-8251

billings@hqspacehab.com