Houston, TX (January 28, 2008) - 

SPACEHAB Incorporated, (NASDAQ: SPAB), a provider of commercial space services, today announced the formation of a new Science Advisory Council, an elite team of scientists, physicians, and microgravity specialists who provide strategic guidance and technical insight as the Company advances its identified microgravity processing initiatives through its new subsidiary, SPACEHAB Microgravity Sciences, Inc.

 

“SPACEHAB is facing both extraordinary opportunities and challenges as we blaze a trail in a brand new industry - private utilization of the International Space Station,” said SPACEHAB President, Jim Royston. The Company recently announced that it was entering discussions with NASA regarding development and cooperation for usage of the International Space Station (ISS), a designated U.S. National Laboratory, for research, development, and industrial processing purposes. “We believe we’ve assembled a team of highly renowned professionals whose expertise will help our company accelerate the scientific innovation necessary to lead and succeed in this new and technically challenging industry,” said Royston.

 

The scope of the council’s activities is primarily related to advising SPACEHAB in the identification and selection of high priority science targets that present the most favorable conditions – including the maturity of the science, the potential market value, as well as a ‘quality of life’ value to the general public – for immediate development in the microgravity environment of the ISS National Lab.

 

The charter members of the multi-discipline council include:

 

Dr. Jeanne L. Becker is Vice President and Institute Associate Director of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), and serves as Chief Scientist of the Institute. She holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Becker is a member, and currently Chair, of the National Advisory Committee for the Women’s Health Research Coalition. She serves on numerous NASA committees, and is a recipient of NASA Space Life Sciences Directorate Professional Achievement Award. Her research focuses on three-dimensional (3D) models of breast and ovarian cancer using the Rotating Wall Vessel; a 14-day flight study on this work was conducted on the ISS, Increment 3. The 3D constructs of breast and ovarian cancer developed in this model simulate many aspects of human disease such as tissue-like architecture and rapid onset drug resistance. She has developed a novel cell culture paradigm based on static magnetic levitation, with two patents filed. Dr. Becker has provided testimony before the U.S. Congress on her research and on the space program’s contributions to women’s health research.

 

Dr. Timothy Hammond is a Professor of Internal Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine, Associate Chief of Staff Research at the Durham VA Medical Center, and Founder and co-Director of the Tulane/VA Environmental Astrobiology Center. He is an internal medicine and nephrology physician in active academic practice. Dr. Hammond has published over 100 peer reviewed scientific articles, and is an inventor on five patents involving tissue differentiation during suspension culture in bioreactors. Dr. Hammond has given congressional testimony on the future of biotechnology and in March 1999 Fortune Magazine named him one of five scientists "Discovering tomorrow today". He has been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on more than twelve academic and commercial payloads which have flown to the Mir and International Space Stations, and well as sortie missions on the space shuttle.

 

Dr. Neal R. Pellis is a leading microbiologist and Associate Director for the Human Research Program Science Management Office in the Space Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Before joining NASA JSC in 1994, he served on the faculty of Northwestern University Medical School and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and directed the Surgical Immunology Laboratory in the Department of Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Pellis' research ranges from his earlier interest in tumor immunology to the effects of microgravity on cell biology, such as why immune cells work differently in space than on the ground.

 

Dr. Louis S. Stodieck is a Research Professor in Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Director of the BioServe Space Technology Center at the University of Colorado, a NASA-sponsored life sciences Commercial Center Space Center. Dr. Stodieck’s primary focus is in bioastronautics, specifically life sciences space flight experimentation, gravitational biology, and cardiovascular physiology.

 

Dr. Wagner A. Vendrame is an Associate Professor at the Environmental Horticulture Department, working at the Tropical Research and Education Center, of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida (UF). Dr. Vendrame joined UF in 2001 and has more than 16 years of experience in plant micropropagation and biotechnology. His research program involves production and conservation of plants using tissue culture, molecular biology, and cryopreservation techniques. In 2007 he launched an experiment on the space shuttle Endeavour (STS-118) to evaluate the growth and multiplication of plant cell suspension cultures under microgravity on the ISS, returning with Discovery (STS-120) three months later.

 

Dr. Xingwu Wang is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Alfred University. His research interests are in fuel cells and fuel processors; thin film coatings, sputtering, RF plasma, laser, atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD), and e-beam; superconductors; and electrical power and instrumentation. He has published 70 papers and holds 19 U.S. patents.

 

About SPACEHAB, Incorporated

SPACEHAB is a commercial leader and entrepreneurial force in the space industry providing a full spectrum of products and services to both the government and private sectors. The Company offers space access and payload integration services, production of valuable commercial products in space, spacecraft pre-launch processing facilities and services, development and extension of space-based products to the consumer market, and program and engineering support ranging from development and manufacturing of flight hardware to large scale government project management.

The statements in this document may contain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, trends, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from the forward-looking statement. These factors include, but are not limited to, continued government support and funding for key space programs, product performance and market acceptance of products and services, as well as other risk factors and business considerations described in the company's Securities & Exchange Commission filings including the annual report on Form 10-K. Any forward-looking statements in this document should be evaluated in light of these important risk factors. The Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

 

For more information, contact:

Eva-Marie deCardenas
Corporate Marketing and Communications
SPACEHAB, Inc.
713.558.5071
edecardenas@spacehab.com