Payload Systems Inc. Marks 20 Years of Industry Influence in Space Programs Worldwide.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 26, 2004

Company Moves into its 21st Year of Business with Critical Role in Several Space Exploration Initiatives, Including Mars Sample Return Program

Twenty years in business is an impressive milestone for any company, but for one focused on advancing scientific technology and research on earth and in space, it is a truly remarkable feat. With the dawning of 2004, Payload Systems Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. will mark its twentieth anniversary and spend the duration of the year recognizing those who have been part of its remarkable run of industry firsts.

Payload Systems was founded in 1984 by Anthony Arrott (currently an independent consultant to early stage technology start-ups), Vinit Nijhawan (currently President and CEO of Taral Networks), and Dr. Byron Lichtenberg, (a former astronaut and current co-founder and trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation), with the goal of providing national and international space programs with customized science and engineering services for microgravity experiments. Since its inception, the company has sent its hardware and software products into space more than two dozen times, without experiencing a single unrecoverable failure on orbit -- an extraordinary record of accomplishment. The company has also received numerous awards and honors from both domestic and international organizations, and three of its employees have been finalists in NASA's astronaut selection program.

Retired NASA official Robert Stuckey has warm praise for Payload Systems' high standards of performance: "In all of my years at NASA working with many people, companies, and other NASA Centers, Payload Systems is by far the best of the best with regards to the people, professionalism, and business dealings."

Today, the company has two projects currently in flight on the International Space Station (ISS), several more spaceflight projects in development, and two projects being developed for terrestrial applications. Most recently, Payload Systems was awarded a $600,000 contract through NASA's SBIR program to develop a Mars Orbiting Sample Retrieval Testbed.

"Over the past 20 years, Payload Systems has made a very tangible and significant contribution to space exploration on a national and international level," said Payload Systems President Joe Parrish. "We think this is an opportune time not just to celebrate our own achievements, but to also thank the community of customers, partners, and suppliers that helped make it all happen. As pleased as we are to herald our successes over the past 20 years, we are even more excited to imagine the directions scientific research and exploration will take in the next 20 years. We are looking forward to continuing our work of helping investigators make important discoveries anywhere their research takes them, here in our solar system or beyond."

Payload Systems has filled a special place in the aerospace industry. As a small business in such a tumultuous industry, Payload Systems has been unusually long-lived -- and remarkably productive. With a current staff of approximately 30, the company has provided customers in academia, industry, and government agencies such as NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory with customized solutions to the unique problems inherent in reduced gravity environments.

Some of Payload Systems' corporate highlights include:

-- 1988: First American company to contract with the former

Soviet Union to carry western commercial payloads into orbit

-- 1989: Payload Systems' Protein Crystal Growth experiment

launched to Mir space station (and again in 1992 and 1993)

-- 1991: Middeck 0-gravity Dynamics Experiment launched on STS-40

(and also later on STS-48 and STS-62)

-- 1995: Middeck Active Control Experiment launched on STS-67

-- 1995: Mir Auxiliary Sensor Unit delivered to Mir space station

by the Space Shuttle

-- 1998: Payload Systems' Positive Pressure Release Valve (PPRV)

installed on all pressurized modules in ISS

-- 2001: Middeck Active Control Experiment II operated aboard

ISS, featured in IMAX movie 'Space Station 3D'

-- 2003: First elements of the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage

and Reorient Experiment Satellites (SPHERES) testbed are

activated on ISS

When asked how he envisions the company's future, CEO and Chief Scientist Dr. Javier de Luis smiled and paused before replying. "Forecasting the future can be a dangerous occupation. But I believe that Payload Systems will continue to serve terrestrial and spaceflight research and exploration needs well into the 21st century, and that is bound to be exciting work."

For more information, see www.payload.com.

About Payload Systems

Based in Cambridge, MA, Payload Systems has spent 20 years providing unparalleled science and engineering services for American and international spaceflight programs and for research programs ranging from human performance and cellular biology to materials science and fluid and structural dynamics. The company also provides payload development and testing, crew training and mission support services.

Payload Systems has built a consistent reputation for quality, speed, talent and creativity in solving unique and difficult engineering problems. It has worked with government agencies such as NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as private industry entities such as Boeing, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin, and has received numerous awards from NASA and international partner organizations. For more information, see www.payload.com.