Ball Aerospace Instrument to Give New View of Pluto
January 15 2006 - 1:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is now awaiting the launch of
the instrument that will give scientists their first, close views
of Pluto. As part of a mission called New Horizons, the Ball-built
Ralph instrument, with its visible imager and infrared spectrometer
will create maps of Pluto and its three moons to help scientists
understand the planets and the environment at the edge of our solar
system. Ralph is scheduled to launch January 17, 2006 on the New
Horizons spacecraft built by the Applied Physics Laboratory aboard
an Atlas V expendable launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Fla. In a
nod to the television show, "The Honeymooners," Ralph will be
paired with Alice, an ultraviolet spectrometer, built by Southwest
Research Institute. Ralph's suite of detectors is fed by a highly
sensitive magnifying telescope with a resolution 10 times better
than the human eye. Small but mighty, Ralph weighs only 23 pounds
and uses about the same wattage as a standard night light. "We are
excited about the science that will be returned from the New
Horizons mission," says David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball
Aerospace. "Imaging Pluto has presented significant technical
challenges the team has addressed with the powerful digital imaging
capabilities built into Ralph." Ralph was designed to study the
surface geology of Pluto and obtain maps of the surface features
and temperature of the planet. Ralph also was designed to provide
images to the spacecraft as part of the navigation system critical
to achieving a precise flyby of Pluto and Charon. The small
instrument will take images twice daily as New Horizons approaches,
flies past and looks back at Pluto. Ralph has seven charge-coupled
devices and an infrared array detector. They will provide color and
black-and-white maps of the surface with a resolution of 250 meters
(820 feet) per pixel, as well as map the presence of nitrogen,
methane, carbon monoxide, water and other materials across the
surfaces of Pluto and its moons. Ralph is a joint project between
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Ball Aerospace and NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center. SwRI's Dr. S. Alan Stern is the
principal investigator for the New Horizons mission. The Applied
Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University is managing the
mission for NASA and built the New Horizons spacecraft. After its
launch, New Horizons is expected to provide a closer look at
Jupiter in February 2007. After traveling more than 3 billion
miles, the mission is expected to reach the distant Pluto and
Charon in July 2015. Ball Aerospace celebrates its 50th year in
business in 2006. The company began building pointing controls for
military rockets in 1956, and later won a contract to build one of
NASA's first spacecraft, the Orbiting Solar Observatory. Over the
years, the company has been responsible for numerous technological
and scientific 'firsts.' Ball Aerospace now develops spacecraft,
payloads, systems and components for important national missions.
Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is a supplier of metal and plastic
packaging products, primarily for the beverage and food industries.
The company also owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.,
which develops sensors, spacecraft, systems and components for
government and commercial markets. Ball Corporation employs more
than 13,500 people and reported 2004 sales of $5.4 billion.
Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains
"forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial
performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates,"
and variations of same and similar expressions are intended to
identify forward-looking statements. Such 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 filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in Exhibit
99.2 in our Form 10-K. These filings are available at our Web site
and at http://www.sec.gov/. Factors that might affect our packaging
segments include fluctuation in consumer and customer demand and
preferences; availability and cost of raw materials, including
recent significant increases in resin, steel, aluminum and energy
costs, and the ability to pass such increases on to customers;
competitive packaging availability, pricing and substitution;
changes in climate and weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing
yields; industry productive capacity and competitive activity;
failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or
production cost reductions, including those associated with our
beverage can end project; the German mandatory deposit or other
restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier
contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; changes in
foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign
subsidiaries; and the effect of LIFO accounting. Factors that might
affect our aerospace segment include: funding, authorization,
availability and returns of government contracts; and delays,
extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts.
Factors that might affect the company as a whole include those
listed plus: acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures;
regulatory action or laws including tax, environmental and
workplace safety; governmental investigations; technological
developments and innovations; goodwill impairment; antitrust,
patent and other litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of
return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined
benefit retirement plans; reduced cash flow; interest rates
affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to
statutory audits or other effects. First Call Analyst: FCMN
Contact: ereed@ball.com DATASOURCE: Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. CONTACT: Media, Emilia Reed, +1-720-936-7831, ,
for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Web site:
http://www.ballaerospace.com/
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