Manufacturing Milestone Achieved for James Webb Space Telescope
February 07 2007 - 10:57AM
PR Newswire (US)
BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The final segment
of the flight primary mirror for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
(JWST) has completed manufacturing and been delivered for grinding
and polishing, a major milestone achieved by Ball Aerospace &
Technologies, Corp. and its subcontractors. The beryllium mirror
segment, one of 18 segments that comprise the telescope's 6.6-meter
primary mirror, was delivered from Axsys Technologies, Inc. in
Cullman, Ala, to L-3 Communications SSG-Tinsley in Richmond, Calif.
"We are now moving into a new phase on JWST following 17 months in
which the telescope has achieved all testing milestones required
for Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6, including Wavefront Sensing
and Control met by Ball Aerospace last month," said David L.
Taylor, president and chief executive officer of Ball Aerospace.
One of the lightest of all metals, beryllium has a demonstrated
track record of performing on space telescopes at cryogenic
temperatures, needed for JWST's infrared observations. Each of the
18 hexagonal-shaped mirror segments measures a little more than 1.3
meters across, and weighs approximately 20 kilograms or 46 pounds
after light-weighting. The completed JWST optics will have more
than nine times the effective light-collecting area of the Hubble
Space Telescope's optics, yet the JWST primary mirror will weigh
only about half as much as Hubble's. Ball Aerospace is the
principal optical subcontractor for the JWST program, led by prime
contractor Northrop Grumman Space Technology, under a contract from
the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md. A secondary
and tertiary mirror, plus flight spares, will be delivered to Ball
Aerospace from its mirror manufacturing team that includes Brush
Wellman, in addition to Axsys and L-3 Communications. As each
mirror completes grinding and polishing and is delivered to Ball
Aerospace during the next four years, it will be mounted onto a
lightweight, actuated strong-back assembly and undergo functional
and environmental testing. Upon successful launch in 2013, JWST
will study the first stars and galaxies following the Big Bang, the
formation of planetary systems, and feature deep imaging and
multi-object spectroscopy in the near and mid-infrared portions of
the spectrum. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports
critical missions of important national agencies such as the
Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and
commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures
spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data
exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and
scientific applications. In the past 50 years, Ball Aerospace has
been responsible for numerous technological and scientific 'firsts'
and now acts as a technology innovator for the aerospace market.
Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and
plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2006 sales of $6.6 billion and
employs 15,500 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; crop 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 Corporation CONTACT: Roz Brown of
Ball Corporation, +1-303-939-6146, or +1-303-533-6059,
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