Astrotech (NASDAQ: ASTC) 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 attention on its satellite processing business, Astrotech Space Operations (ASO); its mass spectrometer instrumentation business, 1st Detect; and its microgravity vaccine development company, Astrogenetix.
In August 2014, the company executed a successful sale of its ASO subsidiary. Proceeds of the sale are funding commercialization of new technologies. In February 2015, the company acquired certain defect correction software and Astral Images was created to commercialize decades of automated image correction and image enhancement research. At this time Astrotech redefined its mission to be a business accelerator that invents, acquires, grows, and monetizes technologies in order to maximize shareholder value.
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