Former Astronaut Frank L. Culbertson, Jr. Joins SAIC As Senior Vice President and Program Manger; A Veteran of Two Space Shuttle Missions and an International Space Station Mission

Business Wire, Sept 16, 2002

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 2002

Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) Space, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (SEAS) Group today announced that Frank L. Culbertson, Jr., USN (ret) has been named senior vice president and program manager of the Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance (SR&QA) contract at the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

In this role, Culbertson will be responsible for overall management of the SR&QA contract, drawing upon his extensive experience in NASA human space flight operations. The SR&QA contract provides support to the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs.

"Frank Culbertson's management experience, leadership and background in human space operations make him exceptionally qualified in his new role at SAIC," said Neil Hutchinson, SAIC senior vice president and manager of the SEAS Group.

Prior to joining SAIC, Culbertson had a distinguished career as a NASA astronaut, which includes logging more than 144 days in space on his three space flights and more than five hours of extra-vehicular activity (space walk) time. In 1999, Culbertson was selected to command the third expedition to the International Space Station.

That mission was launched in August, 2001, and returned to Earth in December, 2001. Culbertson and his two Russian crewmates lived and worked in space for 129 days and he commanded the Space Station for 117 days.

In 1994, Culbertson was named deputy program manager of Phase 1 of the Shuttle-Mir program, and became manager of the program the following year.

The joint U.S.-Russian program was a precursor to the International Space Station. During this period, Culbertson was responsible for a multi-national team which built the flight hardware, developed the joint procedures for seven American astronauts who worked aboard the Mir for more than 30 months, and executed nine Shuttle docking missions to the Russian Space Station Mir.

In 1984, Culbertson was selected as a NASA astronaut and was a member of the NASA team that investigated the Challenger accident. His subsequent assignments included lead spacecraft communicator in the Mission Control Center for seven Shuttle missions. Culbertson piloted the Atlantis on STS-38 in 1990 and was commander of STS-51 aboard Discovery in 1993.

This mission deployed two satellites, retrieved one satellite and conducted a seven-hour spacewalk in preparation for an upcoming Hubble telescope repair mission. He also executed the first night landing of a Shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center.

Culbertson is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. His Navy career includes several carrier deployments and tours as an instructor pilot and automatic carrier landing test pilot. He has logged more than 6,500 hours flying time in 50 different types of aircraft and has made more than 350 carrier landings. He retired as a U.S. Navy Captain from active military duty in 1997.

SAIC is the nation's largest employee-owned research and engineering company, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care and transportation.

With annual revenues of $6.1 billion, SAIC and its subsidiaries, including Telcordia Technologies, have more than 40,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. More information about SAIC can be found on the Internet at www.saic.com.

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements or industry results to be very different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 31, 2002, and such other filings that the Company makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.