Kepler Mirror Arrives at Ball Aerospace for Test and Integration
August 08 2006 - 1:13PM
PR Newswire (US)
BOULDER, Colo., Aug. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The largest
optical mirror ever built for a mission beyond Earth's orbit has
arrived at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. for
environmental testing and spacecraft integration. (Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060808/LATU097) NASA's Kepler
mission, with a field of view 70,000 times greater than the Hubble
Space Telescope, will attempt to detect Earth-like planets orbiting
stars beyond our solar system. By continuously monitoring the
brightness of more than 100,000 stars, Kepler will search for
planets that transit in front of stars. As a planet passes in front
of its parent star, Kepler will detect the star's brightness change
to determine the planet's size and orbit. The possible discovery of
Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of other stars will be the
first step in determining the extent of life in our galaxy. Ball
Aerospace is the prime contractor for the Kepler mission, managed
by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the NASA Ames Research
Center. In addition to the 0.95-meter photometer, Ball Aerospace is
building the spacecraft, and will perform system integration and
testing. The 1.4-meter primary mirror was produced by subcontractor
L-3 Communications Brashear. "Arrival of the technologically
advanced Kepler mirror is an important milestone," said David L.
Taylor, president and chief executive officer of Ball Aerospace.
"By leveraging our spacecraft design from the successful Deep
Impact mission and our instrument expertise from the Hubble Space
Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, we will further contribute
to NASA's search for extrasolar planets." Kepler, which is
scheduled to launch in 2008, was one of two NASA Discovery-class
missions selected in 2001. Ball Aerospace is celebrating 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' and now acts as a
technology innovator in important national missions. Ball
Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and
plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., which develops sensors, spacecraft, systems and
components for government and commercial customers. Ball reported
2005 sales of $5.8 billion and the company employs 15,600 people
worldwide. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains
"forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial
performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates"
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;
integration of recently acquired businesses; 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; changes to the company's pension plans; reduced cash flow;
interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results
due to statutory audits or other effects.
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060808/LATU097
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. CONTACT: Roz Brown of Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., +1-303-939-6146, Web site:
http://www.ballaerospace.com/
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