SpaceHab Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Shelley A. Harrison and RSC-Energia President Dr. Yury P. Semenov signed final agreements October 12.

Officials of SpaceHab and its subsidiary Space Media, Inc. also discussed other business opportunities with Dr. Semenov, including ways in which their companies might help MirCorp meet its contractual obligations aboard the International Space Station (ISS) if the Russian space station Mir is de-orbited as expected.

Mir may have to be brought back to Earth in February 2000, near its 15th anniversary in space, because its orbit is degrading. In addition to serving as president of RSC-Energia, Dr. Semenov is Chairman of MirCorp. RSC-Energia holds 60 percent ownership in MirCorp.

Josef Kind, president of the Space Infrastructure Division of Astrium GmbH, the pan-European aerospace company, also announced last week that Astrium has decided to make a strategic investment in Space Media. Astrium is already in the process of recruiting customers for Space Media.

Mr. Kind is a member of Astrium's Executive Board of Directors and of SpaceHab's Board of Directors. Dr. Semenov was elected to SpaceHab's Board of Directors on October 12.

"We are very pleased to complete these LLC agreements, which signal our long-term commitment to this project," said Dr. Harrison. "Strengthening and expanding our partnership with Energia will enable both companies to advance the development of space commerce on the International Space Station."

Enterprise is a commercial space station habitat module that will be attached to the Russian segment of the ISS. It is scheduled to launch in early 2003. SpaceHab and its strategic partner RSC-Energia initially agreed to develop Enterprise as a joint endeavor in December 1999. The Enterprise LLC formalizes this partnership.

In August, Space Media formed a partnership with RSC-Energia, called Enermedia LLC, to develop and market space-based multimedia content for television broadcast and Internet distribution first from the Russian service module Zvezda (which is now attached to the ISS) and later from Enterprise, also using materials from Russian space program archives.

In a related development, SpaceHab and RSC-Energia received public recognition for innovative design work on Enterprise in the form of a 2001 Design & Engineering Award from Popular Mechanics, a magazine with a readership of nine million.

Popular Mechanics Editor-in-Chief Joe Oldham presented the award to SpaceHab's Dr. Harrison and Energia's Dr. Semenov in a ceremony at SpaceHab headquarters on October 11. This awards program has become "one of the most prestigious forms of recognition for achievement in design innovation," according to Oldham.

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