Astrotech Corporation

Astrotech Corporation, formerly Spacehab Inc.,[2] is a technology incubator headquartered in Austin, Texas. Astrotech uses technology sourced internally and from research institutions, government laboratories, and universities to fund, manage and sell start-up companies.

Astrotech Corporation
Traded asNASDAQ: ASTC
IndustryScience & Technology
Founded1984 (1984)
Headquarters
Austin, TX
,
United States
Number of locations
3
Key people
Thomas Pickens, CEO
ServicesTechnology Incubator
Number of employees
71[1]
Websitewww.astrotechcorp.com/ 

Astrotech Corporation's subsidiaries provide commercial products and services to NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, national space agencies, and global commercial customers.

History
Former logo of Spacehab Inc.

Astrotech Corporation

Astrotech Corporation was established in 1984. Prior to 2009, it was known as SPACEHAB, Inc., a company that provided space habitat microgravity experimentation equipment and services to NASA during the Space Shuttle era. As the Shuttle program came to an end, the company put more focus on its spacecraft processing business, Astrotech Space Operations, Inc. (ASO), its mass spectrometer instrumentation business, 1st Detect, Inc. and its microgravity vaccine development company, Astrogenetix, Inc. In August 2014, the company sold Astrotech Space Operations. In February 2015, the company acquired defect correction software and Astral Images Corp. was created to commercialize government funded satellite imagery processing technology and research into automated image correction and enhancement.

Spacehab
Spacehab Research Double Module (RDM) in the Space Shuttle.

Spacehab was founded in 1984 by Bob Citron with the help and support of CSP Associates from Cambridge, Massachusetts. The team from CSP Associates included founder David W. Lippy along with his partners Brad Meslin and Marc Oderman. It was one of CSP's consultants, Dr. David Williamson who conceived of the idea to increase the cargo space on the Shuttles as the primary focus of the Spacehab mission. Early venture capital was supplied by Al Zesiger of BEA Associates in New York City as well as Dr. Shelley Harrison also from New York. CSP Associates and its venture contacts were responsible for raising most of the early seed monies to get the company off the ground and funded. Throughout its more than 20-year history, Spacehab has contracted over $1 billion dollars in total sales.

Spacehab hardware for Space Shuttle missions

Spacehab hardware consists of:

  • Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), unpressurized
  • External Stowage Platform (ESP-2 and ESP-3), an ICC variant
  • Logistics Single Module (LSM) and Logistics Double Module (LDM)
  • Single Module (SM) and Research Double Module (RDM), pressurized

The Spacehab hardware was specifically designed to be nestled inside the cargo bay of the Space Shuttles and flew on a total of 22 Space Shuttle missions, including seven to the Russian space station Mir and eight to the International Space Station (ISS). The Single Module flew on seven missions, and the Research Double Module flew only on the ill-fated Columbia STS-107 mission, in which it was destroyed.

Spacehab Research Double Module on board STS-107.

The inaugural flight of Spacehab's research double module, which launched January 2003 on STS-107, ended when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry. In January 2004, Spacehab filed a formal claim against NASA for the amount of $87.7 million for the loss caused by the Columbia accident. In February 2003 Spacehab received $17.7 million from the proceeds of its commercial insurance policy, and in October 2004 NASA paid the company $8.2 million.[3] In February 2007, Spacehab dropped all litigation against NASA.

Spacehab's ICC hardware has been further developed into the External Stowage Platform (ESP-2 and ESP-1), which are permanently deployed on the ISS. The ESP-2 is currently attached to the International Space Station's airlock, providing the only permanent, commercial "spare parts" facility for the ISS crew. ESP-3 was deployed during Space Shuttle mission STS-118, on August 8, 2007.

Flights
Flight Date Orbiter Mission Elements
STS-57 June/July 1993 Endeavour Research SM
STS-60 February 1994 Discovery Wake Shield Facility SM
STS-63 February 1995 Discovery Mir rendezvous SM
STS-76 March 1996 Atlantis Mir docking SM
STS-77 May 1996 Endeavour SPARTAN SM
STS-79 September 1996 Atlantis Mir docking LDM
STS-81 January 1997 Atlantis Mir docking LDM
STS-84 May 1997 Atlantis Mir docking LDM
STS-86 September/October 1997 Atlantis Mir docking LDM
STS-89 January 1998 Endeavour Mir docking LDM
STS-91 June 1998 Discovery Mir docking SM
STS-95 October/November 1998 Discovery SPARTAN SM
STS-96 May/June 1999 Discovery ISS docking LDM + ICC
STS-101 May 2000 Atlantis ISS docking LDM + ICC
STS-106 September 2000 Atlantis ISS docking LDM + ICC
STS-102 March 2001 Discovery ISS docking ICC + ESP-1
STS-105 August 2001 Discovery ISS docking ICC
STS-107 January/February 2003 Columbia Research RDM
STS-114 July/August 2005 Discovery ISS docking ESP-2
STS-121 July 2006 Discovery ISS docking ICC
STS-116 December 2006 Discovery ISS docking LSM + ICC
STS-118 August 2007 Endeavour ISS docking LSM + ESP-3

Legend:

  • ESP - External Stowage Platform
  • ICC - Integrated Cargo Carrier
  • LDM - Logistics Double Module
  • LSM - Logistics Single Module
  • SM - Single Module
  • RDM - Research Double Module

Astrotech Space Operations (ASO)

The Company changed its name to Astrotech Corporation in 2009 to align the corporate name with the company's core business offering, Astrotech Space Operation.[4] ASO provides all support necessary for government and commercial customers to successfully process their satellite hardware for launch–including planning; construction and use of unique equipment and facilities; and spacecraft checkout, encapsulation, fueling, and transport.

Astrotech Corporation management sold ASO, its state-of-the-art satellite servicing operations, to Lockheed Martin in August 2014.

Products and services

Chemical detection and analysis

1st Detect,[5] an Astrotech subsidiary, develops, manufactures, and sells powerful, highly sensitive, and accurate mass spectrometers that can be used in explosive and chemical warfare detection for the Department of Homeland Security and the military. 1st Detect's miniature mass spectrometer technology was sourced from Oak Ridge Laboratory's chemical analyzer research.

Film restoration, correction, and enhancement

Astral Images[6] sells film to digital image enhancement, defect removal and color correction software, and post processing services, providing economically feasible conversion of television and feature 35mm and 16mm films to the new 4K ultra-high definition (UHD), high-dynamic range (HDR) format necessary for the new generation of digital distribution. Astral Images' core technology is sourced from decades of image research from the laboratories of IBM and Kodak combined with classified satellite technology from government laboratories.

Vaccine development

Sourced from NASA's extensive microgravity research, Astrogenetix is applying a fast-track on-orbit discovery platform using the International Space Station to develop vaccines and other therapeutics.

Space operations
Astrotech Titusville spacecraft processing facility
MESSENGER assembly at Astrotech.

Prior to the 2014 Lockheed Martin acquisition, Astrotech provided both the government and commercial space markets with satellite processing services through its Astrotech Space Operations (ASO) subsidiary located in Titusville, Florida, three miles (5 km) from the Kennedy Space Center. It has more than 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) of clean room processing space, and services payloads, or satellites, for United Launch Alliance’s Atlas and Delta rocket families, Orbital Sciences’ Taurus and Pegasus, and SpaceX's Falcon 9[7] launch vehicles. Astrotech owned and operated processing facilities located on Vandenberg Air Force Base at the Western Range in California. Also in California, ASO provides payload processing and facilities management support for the ocean-going Sea Launch program at the Home Port Facilities in Long Beach.

ARCTUS

On December 10, 2007, Spacehab released details about its upcoming Advanced Research and Conventional Technology Utilization Spacecraft designed to deliver cargo to, and return cargo from, the International Space Station.[8] The project was later shelved.

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References
  1. http://www.hoovers.com/company/Astrotech_Corporation/cjsjyi-1.html
  2. Houston Business Journal article citing name change
  3. Two Spacehab press releases from January 2004 and 2005 regarding the claims filed against NASA for STS-107
  4. SatNews article citing name change
  5. 1st Detect Official Website
  6. Astral Images Official Website
  7. http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/03/noaa-space-weather-sentinel-joined-with-falcon-9-rocket/
  8. "Spacehab to update website with ARCTUS details". Flight Global. 7 December 2007.
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