Commercial space services provider SPACEHAB plans to expand its range of space cargo containers with the help of $15.4 million from strategic partner Astrium, SPACEHAB said Jan. 9.
According to the new sales-leaseback arrangement, Astrium, the largest European aerospace company and the third-largest in the world, will provide up to $15.4 million in cash and services to subsidize development of SPACEHAB's Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) payload container hardware.
The arrangement indicates continuing support from Bremen, Germany-based Astrium, which already makes the assembly that anchors the ICC unit into a space shuttle's cargo bay, for the technology.
"The ICC has already played a key role in ISS (International Space Station) resupply, and we are confident that the program offers an affordable, quality solution for future un-pressurized space station needs," Astrium space infrastructure president, Josef Kind said in a statement.
to buy 11.5 percent of the smaller company.
The current configuration of the ICC system is a flat aluminum module that expands a shuttle's carrying capacity by up to 6,000 pounds (2,722 kilograms). This model has already flown three times to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
Among the new variations on this basic model that SPACEHAB said were in the works: a deployable carrier and a container that attaches vertically.
Down the road, the company hinted at an entire array of enhancements ranging from a cryogenic carrier to a carrier that would interface with existing EXPRESS chest-of-drawers cargo racks.
SPACEHAB shares jumped 44 cents, or more than 18 percent, to $2.81 on the news.
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