Ball Aerospace Wins WorldView 2 Contract
January 02 2007 - 1:21PM
PR Newswire (US)
BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp. has been selected by DigitalGlobe(R),
provider of the world's highest resolution commercial satellite
imagery and geospatial information products, to build WorldView 2,
its third satellite in a constellation of spacecraft that offer the
highest-resolution imagery of Earth. WorldView 2 is the fourth
remote-sensing satellite built by Ball Aerospace for Digital Globe.
"The WorldView 2 spacecraft bus is the eighth contracted program in
our Ball Commercial Platform (BCP) satellite product line," said
Ball Aerospace President and CEO, David L. Taylor. "The BCP product
line continues to mature in reliability, capability and
state-of-the-art technology. The WorldView 2 contract builds upon
our heritage of more than 16 years of successful on-orbit mission
performance." Ball Aerospace will provide the BCP 5000 for
WorldView 2, anticipated to launch in 2008. The spacecraft bus
offers increased resolution and target selection flexibility, and
accommodates future optical, scientific and Synthetic Aperture
Radar remote-sensing payloads. The BCP 5000's power, stability,
agility, and data storage and transmission capability, together
meet the requirements to deliver comprehensive Earth remote-sensing
information. Ball Aerospace is completing integration of the sensor
for WorldView 1, scheduled to be on-orbit in mid-2007. Once
launched, WorldView 1 will supply half-meter resolution commercial
imagery content to DigitalGlobe customers worldwide, and will
provide still-higher resolution imaging capability than the Ball
Aerospace-built QuickBird satellite. The advanced Control Moment
Gyroscopes (CMGs) provided by Ball for WorldView 1 and WorldView 2,
afford the satellites the flexibility and agility to capture more
imagery than ever before. The addition of WorldView 2 provides the
capability of 8-band multispectral pictures at resolutions as sharp
as 1.8 meters and panchromatic at half-meter. DigitalGlobe is a
leader in the commercial marketplace providing unprecedented
imagery with the highest resolution, largest footprint and highest
accuracy of any other commercially available satellite imagery in
the world. "Since our first successful teaming with the QuickBird
launch in October 2001, DigitalGlobe and Ball Aerospace have been
making history in meeting the increased demand for Earth imaging
collection," said Jill Smith, DigitalGlobe president and CEO. "The
WorldView satellites will further enhance our contributions to the
geospatial information market." Ball Aerospace celebrated 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 for important national missions. Ball
Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and
plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2005 sales of $5.8 billion and
employs 15,600 people. Forward-Looking Statements This 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 Exhibit 99.2
in our Form 10-K, which 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; the effect of LIFO accounting; and any changes to
such accounting. Factors that might affect our aerospace segment
include: funding, authorization, availability and returns of
government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and
technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts. Factors that
might affect the company as a whole include those listed plus:
accounting changes; successful or unsuccessful 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; pension changes; reduced cash flow;
interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results
due to statutory audits or other effects. DATASOURCE: Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp. CONTACT: Roz Brown of Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., +1-303-939-6146,
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