It's too bad that it takes devastation to create awareness, but such is life. As reminded by Austin, Texas-based Astrotech (NASDAQ:ASTC) on Tuesday morning, the 9/11 Commission Act set in place more than a decade ago mandated every single piece of air cargo loaded onto passenger aircraft must be screened for explosives.
The company was alluding to challenges with keeping up with that mandate due to ever-increasing loads of cargo against the backdrop of self-proclaimed psychopath Mark Anthony Conditt, aka the "Austin bomber," taking the lives of two innocent victims with exploding packages shipped locally through FedEx (NYSE:FDX).
While his packages were not taken to the air, the murderous acts of Conditt speak to the importance of keeping up with the directives of the 9/11 Commission Act and potentially having technology in place at all types of cargo types of hubs constantly looking for explosives.
Astrotech made these comments as part of a broader statement about the TRACER 1000, a new explosive trace detector of it subsidiary 1st Detect. The company said that the Transportation Security Administration, better known by the acronym "TSA," has accepted the new product for its Air Cargo Screening Technology Qualification Test program.
Astrotech CEO Thomas Pickens describes the acceptance as a "major step toward inclusion on TSA’s exclusive Air Cargo Screening Technology List and having the TRACER 1000 used at cargo facilities worldwide."
Earlier on in the trading session, the markets were more boisterous in the approval of the news, sending shares of ASTC as high as $3.40 after closing Monday at a 52-week low at $2.02. The sizzle has faded some, with shares slipping all the way back to $2.69, but still representing a gain on the day of 33.2% to make it a top performing Nasdaq-listed stock with about 2-1/2 hours left in the trading day.
