Ball Completes NPOESS Spacecraft Assembly and Integration
Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corp., has completed assembly and integration of the spacecraft for the
National Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory
Project (NPP). Spacecraft performance testing is completed, and environmental
testing, including vibration and thermal vacuum, have begun.
NPP, the mission precursor for NPOESS, has a twofold purpose: it will
provide data continuity between the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and
Aqua missions and NPOESS, and provide technical risk reduction for NPOESS.
Under contract to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to provide the
spacecraft, Ball Aerospace will deliver a modified Ball Aerospace Commercial
Platform (BCP 2000), and perform integration of the government-furnished
instruments and satellite-level testing. Ball Aerospace is also providing one
of four instruments selected for the flight, the Ozone Mapping and Profiler
Suite (OMPS).
“We are on target to meet NPP’s aggressive schedule and cost profile with
bus completion by March 2005, followed by instrument integration during the
summer of 2005,” said Don Hood, NPP program manager. “Our past experience in
building the BCP 2000 has allowed us to successfully meet schedule and perform
to expectations.”
The BCP 2000 is part of a line of spacecraft built by Ball Aerospace that
can accommodate Earth-sensing instrumentation requiring precision pointing
control while maintaining the flexibility needed for rapid target selection.
Several BCP 2000s are currently operating on-orbit, including NASA’s Quick
Scatterometer (QuikSCAT), ICESat, the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite
and DigitalGlobe’s Quickbird satellite. In addition, the Ball Aerospace-built
bus will be employed on NASA’s CloudSat satellite, scheduled to launch later
this year.
OMPS is the next-generation ozone monitoring system designed to collect
total column and vertical profile ozone data and continue the daily global
data produced by the current ozone monitoring systems, the Solar Backscatter
Ultraviolet radiometer (SBUV)/2, built by Ball Aerospace for NOAA POES
spacecraft and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), built by Ball
Aerospace for Nimbus 7.
The NPP is a joint effort of the NPOESS Integrated Program Office, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA. Scheduled to
launch in 2006, NPP will be in orbit prior to the expected end-of-life of EOS
Aqua and provide overlap with the NPOESS spacecraft.
Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging
products and innovative packaging solutions to the beverage and food
industries. The company also owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which
develops sensors, spacecraft, systems and components for the government and
commercial markets. Ball employs 13,100 people worldwide and reported 2003
sales of $4.9 billion.
The information in this news release contains “forward-looking” statements
and other statements concerning future events and financial performance.
Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” and variations of such
words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties
which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise. Key risks and uncertainties are summarized in the
company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in
Exhibit 99.2 in the most recent Form 10-K. These filings are available at the
company’s website and at http://www.sec.gov . Factors that might affect the packaging
segments of the company include fluctuation in consumer and customer demand;
competitive packaging material availability, pricing and substitution; changes
in climate and weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; industry
productive capacity and competitive activity; lack of productivity improvement
or production cost reductions; the German mandatory deposit or other
restrictive packaging laws; availability and cost of raw materials, such as
resin, steel and aluminum, and the ability to pass on to customers changes in
these costs; changes in major customer contracts or the loss of a major
customer; international business risks, such as foreign exchange rates and tax
rates; and the effect of LIFO accounting on earnings. Factors that might
affect the aerospace segment include: funding, authorization and availability
of government contracts and the nature and continuation of those contracts;
and technical uncertainty associated with segment contracts. Factors that
could affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: successful and
unsuccessful acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures and associated
integration activities; regulatory action or laws including environmental and
workplace safety; goodwill impairment; antitrust and other litigation;
strikes; boycotts; increases in various employee benefits and labor costs;
rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company’s defined
benefit retirement plans; reduced cash flow; and interest rates affecting our
debt.
