Ball Aerospace Begins Integration of CrlS Instrument for NPP Weather Satellite

The final instrument to fly aboard NASA’s National Preparatory Project (NPP) weather satellite has been installed and is preparing for integration at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), an advanced atmospheric sensor built by ITT, arrived at Ball’s Colorado facility on June 18.

CrIS is the last of five instruments to be integrated onto the Ball Aerospace-designed and built NPP spacecraft bus, under contract to NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center. The five-instrument suite will collect and distribute remotely sensed land, ocean, and atmospheric data to the meteorological and global climate change communities. It will provide atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, humidity sounding, land and ocean biological productivity and cloud and aerosol properties.

Ball will complete integration of the CrIS instrument by mid-July. NPP is expected to launch in late 2011.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions of important national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. For more information visit www.ballaerospace.com.

Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,000 people worldwide and reported 2009 sales of approximately $7.3 billion.