Astrotech Wins Contract From NASA To Process Dual-Satellite Payload For Vandenberg Launch
Astrotech Space
Operations, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB, Inc. , today announced that it has received a contract award from the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to support
processing of two earth-observation satellites for launch on a Delta
expendable launch vehicle (ELV).
The $479,600 contract, awarded by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center,
covers launch-site payload processing services for NASA’s Earth
Observing-1 (EO-1) and Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-C (SAC-C)
earth-observation satellites. These spacecraft are scheduled for
launch together on a Delta 7320 “Med-Lite” ELV from California’s
Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) in November.
Astrotech will process these payloads at its Vandenberg AFB
facility, a full-service site equipped to support spacecraft
processing for Atlas, Delta, Pegasus, and Taurus launches. Astrotech’s
payload processing services include support for spacecraft final
mechanical assembly, electrical checkout, liquid propellant loading,
solid rocket motor/ordinance installation, payload fairing
encapsulation, transport to the launch pad, and remote payload command
and control through countdown.
The EO-1/SAC-C mission is the second of NASA’s Earth Observing
System (EOS) program payloads to be processed at Astrotech’s
Vandenberg AFB facility. Astrotech provided payload processing
services for NASA’s first EOS mission, designated Terra (formerly
EOS-AM-1), launched in December 1999. The total value of Astrotech’s
contract with NASA for support to the Terra mission was more than $2
million.
The EO-1 spacecraft is an element of NASA’s New Millennium
Program, designed to conduct space-flight validation of breakthrough
technologies for space and Earth science missions. SAC-C is a
cooperative NASA-Argentine project.
Astrotech provides commercial space services through its Sounding
Rocket and Payload Processing divisions. Astrotech’s Payload
Processing division provides satellite processing services for the
U.S. launch industry, including support for Boeing’s Delta program,
Lockheed Martin’s Atlas program, and Orbital Sciences Corporation’s
Taurus and Pegasus programs. Since 1985, over 150 satellites have been
processed at Astrotech facilities adjacent to Kennedy Space
Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and at Vandenberg
AFB in California.
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
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.
