Ball Aerospace’s QuikSCAT to Fly Fifth Year

Based on its consistent performance in
delivering important weather data to users around the world, NASA has extended
the on-orbit operations of the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite built by
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., for a fifth year.

Launched in 1999, the satellite completed its 20,000th orbit in early 2003.
QuikSCAT has been measuring winds over approximately 90 percent of the ice-free
ocean on a daily basis for four years — two years beyond its anticipated
mission. With the apparent loss of Midori-II, the Advanced Earth Observing
Satellite, (Adeos-2) last month, the information collected by the QuikSCAT
scatterometer regarding ocean-wind data is more important than ever.

“QuikSCAT continues to perform exceptionally well,” said Chip Barnes, QuikSCAT
program manager for Ball Aerospace. “It was the first in a line of spacecraft
based on the Ball Commercial Platform 2000 (BCP 2000) that we anticipate to be
equally effective and reliable.”

Additional Ball Aerospace-built satellite busses based on the BCP 2000 design
include: QuickBird, built for DigitalGlobe and launched in 2001; CloudSat, built
for JPL under NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program, scheduled to
launch in 2004; the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite
System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP), under construction for NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office slated to launch in
2006; and NextView, a next-generation, commercial high-resolution imaging
satellite to be built for DigitalGlobe under its contract to the National
Imagery and Mapping Agency.

QuikSCAT was the first satellite to use NASA’s Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition
procurement process. Ball Aerospace provided the spacecraft bus, launch
interface systems, system integration, test and launch support. Ball Aerospace
also performs mission operations with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory
for Atmospheric and Space Physics as a subcontractor.

The QuikSCAT data is used operationally by the National Center for Environmental
Prediction, a branch of the National Weather Service and the European Centre for
Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. The use of the data in operational systems is
the result of a cooperative effort among NASA, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration and European countries.

Ball Corporation is one of the world’s leading suppliers of metal and plastic
packaging to the beverage and food industries. The company also owns Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp. With the addition of Ball Packaging Europe,
acquired in December 2002, Ball expects to report 2003 sales of approximately
$4.9 billion, of which approximately $4.4 billion will come from its two
packaging segments and $500 million from its aerospace and technologies segment.

Forward Looking Statement

The information in this news release contains “forward-looking” statements.
Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those expressed or
implied. As time passes, the relevance and accuracy of forward- looking
statements contained in this release may change. The company currently does not
intend to update any particular forward-looking statement except as it deems
necessary at quarterly or annual release of earnings. Please refer to the Form
10-Q filed by Ball Corporation on Nov. 10, 2003, for a summary of key risk
factors that could affect actual results or outcomes. Factors that might affect
the packaging segments of the company are: fluctuation in consumer and customer
demand; competitive packaging material availability, pricing and substitution;
the weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; company and industry
productive capacity and competitive activity; lack of productivity improvement
or production cost reductions; regulatory action or laws, including the German
mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws and environmental and
workplace safety regulations; availability and cost of raw materials, energy and
transportation; the ability or inability to pass on to customers changes in
these costs, particularly resin, steel and aluminum; pricing and ability or
inability to sell scrap; international business risks (including foreign
exchange rates and tax rates) particularly in the United States, Europe and in
developing countries such as China and Brazil; and the effect of LIFO accounting
on earnings. Factors that may affect the aerospace segment are: funding,
authorization and availability of government contracts and the nature and
continuation of those contracts; and technical uncertainty associated with
aerospace segment contracts. Factors that could affect the company as a whole
include those listed plus: successful and unsuccessful acquisitions, joint
ventures or divestitures and the integration activities associated therewith
including the integration and operation of the business of Schmalbach-Lubeca AG,
now known as Ball Packaging Europe; the inability to purchase the company’s
common stock; insufficient or reduced cash flow; regulatory action or laws
including those related to corporate governance and financial reporting,
regulations and standards; actual and estimated business consolidation and
investment costs and the net realizable value of assets associated with these
activities; goodwill impairment; changes in generally accepted accounting
principles or their interpretation; litigation; antitrust, intellectual
property, consumer and other issues; strikes; boycotts; increases in various
employee benefits and labor costs, specifically pension, medical and health care
costs incurred in the countries in which Ball has operations; rates of return
projected and earned on assets of the company’s defined benefit retirement
plans; interest rates and level of company debt, including floating rate debt;
terrorist activities, war or catastrophic events that disrupt or impact
production, supply or pricing of the company’s goods and services, including raw
materials and energy costs, or disrupt or impact the credit and financing of the
company’s businesses; and U.S. and foreign economic conditions.

[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.ball.com/aerospace/media/images/qscat2.html ]