Press Release

A Web First: NaviSite to Stream Mir Space Station’s Fiery Reentry Into Earth’s Atmosphere

By SpaceRef Editor
March 13, 2001
Filed under ,

Leading managed application hosting provider NaviSite, Inc. today announced it will broadcast a part of space history on the Internet when it streams footage of the 140-ton Mir space station burning up in an extraordinary celestial display upon its fiery reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. As the exclusive
streaming provider for the event, NaviSite will provide MirReentry.com
with its streamOS(TM) performance management and content distribution
capabilities. The technology will deliver first-hand views of the
event – expected to be the largest celestial event since the Tunguska
meteorite struck the Earth in Siberia in 1908 – to visitors via
www.MirReentry.com. The reentry is expected to occur on or around
March 20.

The MIR Reentry Observation Expedition plane, carrying film
production crews and acquisition technology from HD3, will fly
approximately 200 miles from the projected track of reentry to capture
the event. The 140-ton Mir is one of the world’s first orbiting space
stations, and the last symbol of the Soviet presence in space. When it
reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, somewhere over the South Pacific, it
is expected that up to 100 tons of the space station will burn up,
while the remaining 40 tons continues to break up and hit the ocean at
near sonic speed. Using streamOS(TM), MirReentry.com will stream the
footage on the official Mir reentry Web site, allowing visitors
worldwide to watch the reentry on demand.

“We chose to work with NaviSite because this is a once in a
lifetime event and we wanted the best streaming technology available
so we could deliver high quality footage to anyone who wants to view
it,” said Robert Belzer, co-owner and chief technical officer at
MirReentry.com. “streamOS(TM) will provide us with the capabilities we
need to bring this spectacular display to a worldwide audience.”

NaviSite’s streamOS(TM) is a scalable, cost-effective platform for
high-performance streaming content management and delivery, enabling
customers to use drag-and-drop functionality to deploy, organize and
manage streaming content on their Web sites via a browser-based
interface. streamOS(TM) employs a utility service approach which
allows customers to leverage the high-performance streaming
infrastructure provided by streamOS(TM) Content Distribution Networks
(CDNs) as they need it. streamOS(TM) speeds the deployment of
streaming content and events, and makes streaming more cost effective
and flexible by allowing customers to pay on a usage basis with
instant resource provisioning. Through its partnerships with CDNs,
NaviSite provides a strong international and domestic network for
delivering high quality, high bit rate content. streamOS(TM) also
enables customers to track and report on the performance of streaming
broadcasts to ensure high availability.

Mir celebrated its 15th birthday in February, surviving well
beyond its original anticipated five-year life span. The reentry will
be marked by the breaking apart of the Mir into hundreds, even
thousands of pieces, the rupture of the major pressurized modules, and
the streaming trails of incandescent debris as it passes through the
Earth’s atmosphere.

“It is a great opportunity to be part of the Mir reentry event,
and one that we are looking forward to immensely,” said Joel Rosen,
president and CEO of NaviSite. “streamOS(TM) provides superior
streaming services that an event of this magnitude demands, ensuring
performance, reliability, scalability and ease of management.”

About NaviSite, Inc.

NaviSite, Inc. is a leading provider of outsourced Web hosting and
managed application services for companies conducting mission-critical
business on the Internet, including enterprises and other businesses
deploying Internet applications. The Company’s goal is to help
customers focus on their core competencies by outsourcing the
management and hosting of their Web operations and applications,
allowing customers to fundamentally improve the ROI of their web
operations. NaviSite is a majority-owned operating company of CMGI,
Inc. with minority investment from Microsoft Corporation.

NaviSite’s SiteHarbor® solutions provide secure, reliable,
co-location and high-performance hosting services, including
high-performance Internet access, and high-availability server
management solutions through load balancing, clustering, mirroring and
storage services. In addition, NaviSite’s enhanced management
services, beyond basic co-location and hosting, are designed to meet
the expanding needs of businesses as their Web sites and Internet
applications become more complex and as their needs for outsourcing
all aspects of their online businesses intensify. The Company’s
application services, which include application hosting, management
and rental, provide cost-effective access to, as well as rapid
deployment and reliable operation of, business-critical applications,
including managed services for streaming media.

For more information about NaviSite, please visit www.navisite.com
or by phone on the East Coast call 888-298-8222 and on the West Coast
call 888-755-5525. NaviSite is headquartered at 400 Minuteman Road,
Andover, MA 01810.

NaviSite’s Streaming Media Group (SMG) is a leading outsource
service provider for end-to-end streaming needs. With the expansion
from a managed site hosting company to an integrated streaming
services provider, NaviSite offers the highest quality production,
management, broadcast, and service experience to customers who want to
stream programming. The SMG provides the complete infrastructure, from
filming the event to delivery over the Internet for live, on-demand
and interactive video chat events. NaviSite SMG is located at 4225
Executive Square Suite 700, La Jolla, CA 92037

This release contains forward-looking statements based on current
expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about
future events, and these statements are subject to important factors
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those described in the forward-looking statements. The
forward-looking statements in this release address a variety of
subjects including, for example, the expected benefits to be derived
from and functionality of the NaviSite’s streamOS, the expected
functionality of NaviSite’s products and technologies, any
difficulties experienced integrating streamOS with NaviSite
technologies and/or with those of other service providers and
equipment suppliers, any failure of streamOS to function as designed,
increased competition and technological changes in the markets in
which NaviSite competes, any failure of third party systems, service
providers or technologies to function in connection with the streaming
of live events and any failure of systems or internal infrastructure.
For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements,
please refer to the filings made by each of NaviSite and CMGI with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on
Form 10-K and the most recently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q
of each of NaviSite and CMGI for the most recently ended fiscal year
and quarter for each company.

SpaceRef staff editor.