WASHINGTON -- Insurers will soon be processing a claim for the commercial research laboratory that was lost aboard the shuttle Columbia. The claim will be filed by Spacehab Inc., of Webster, Tex., a company that has built its business around NASAs space shuttle program.

Columbias 16-day research mission marked the debut of the Research Double Module, a pressurized science lab installed in the shuttles cargo bay. The module was designed, built, owned and operated by Spacehab. The reported value of the Double Research Module is roughly equivalent to the companys $100 million in annual revenue.

Spacehab President Michael Kearney said that the lost module was insured but declined to say for how much. He said that information would be disclosed in the companys quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which he said would be filed by Feb. 15.

Spacehab had expected to garner additional flight contracts for the Research Cargo Modules. Additional flights, Kearney said, were important to Spacehab recouping its investment in the hardware.

Spacehab has two space shuttle modules remaining, both configured for carrying supplies to the international space station. Those logistics modules are currently manifested on two space shuttle flights to the space station originally scheduled to take place this year.

A Spacehab owned-and-operated external cargo pallet was also to be included on the March 1 space shuttle mission that is now on hold.

Kearney said there are too many variables at play to say precisely what the future holds for the space shuttle program and, by implication Spacehab. He did, however, say that there is no doubt that the companys forecast for 2003 will be impacted by the accident.

"We think we have a role in helping NASA get human spaceflight back on its feet," Kearney said in a telephone interview.

Since 1990, Spacehab has been investing its own money developing habitable space modules and other equipment that it in turn leases to NASAs human space flight program. Under its subsidiary Johnson Engineering, the company also builds space station mockups and operates the giant indoor swimming pool facility called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory where NASA astronauts train for shuttle and station missions.

Approximately 80 percent of Spaceabs 2002 revenues were generated by two NASA contracts, according to the companys latest Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Those two contracts were for Columbias ill-fated research mission and operation of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston.

The company went through a number of layoffs in 2001 and 2002 and consolidated much of its management personnel in Webster, giving up prime office space the company occupied across the street from NASA headquarters in Washington.

The company reported a net loss of $2.3 million for the year ended June 30, 2002.