Townsend to Lead Ball Aerospace Exploration Systems in Huntsville
April 05 2007 - 7:27PM
PR Newswire (US)
BOULDER, Colo., April 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp. (NYSE:BLL) announced the appointment of
Bill Townsend as vice president for Exploration Systems. Townsend
will lead the company's pursuit of the Instrument Unit contract for
the Ares I launch vehicle. He will relocate from Boulder to the
company's Huntsville, Ala. office. (Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070405/LATH071 ) Townsend has
been vice president and general manager of Ball Aerospace's Civil
Space Systems division since joining Ball Aerospace in September
2004. In that role, he led the company's pursuit of civilian
remote-sensing instruments and scientific instruments, spacecraft,
and other flight hardware for prime contractors and civilian
government agencies. Ball Aerospace established its Huntsville
office to create a permanent presence in the business community, as
it pursues a contract to provide integration and production support
to NASA for the Ares I Instrument Unit. The Ares I Crew Launch
Vehicle will launch the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, the system
currently being designed to replace the space shuttle after its
retirement in 2010. Ares I, and the follow-on Ares V Cargo Launch
Vehicle, are key elements of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration
that include returning humans to the moon. Ball Aerospace is
well-positioned to support NASA by offering crucial capabilities
and technologies that enable human exploration and scientific
discovery. "In his new position as vice president for Exploration
Systems, Bill Townsend leverages more than 35 years of experience
in program management and large aerospace systems to meet the
requirements of our NASA customer," said David L. Taylor, president
and chief executive officer of Ball Aerospace. "The pursuit of the
Ares Instrument Unit is critical to continuing our expanding role
in exploration." Ball Aerospace offers decades of successful
mission integration and large-scale subcontract management
experience. This experience complements NASA's strategy for
implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration program. Ball
Aerospace, which was the lead mission integrator for the highly
successful Deep Impact mission, is also the lead mission integrator
for a second Discovery mission, Kepler, and is leading the
development of the James Webb Space Telescope optical subsystem.
Further, following installation of two new instruments aboard the
Hubble Space Telescope during the 2008 servicing mission, Ball
Aerospace will have built all of the operating Hubble instruments.
The company also provides star trackers, cryogenic storage tanks,
and keel latches for the space shuttle. Before joining Ball,
Townsend spent 40 years at NASA, most recently as the Deputy Center
Director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Townsend
holds a BSEE from Virginia Tech. His roster of honors and awards
includes two Presidential Rank, Meritorious Executive awards; two
NASA Distinguished Service Medals; the NASA Outstanding Leadership
Medal; the NASA Exceptional Service Medal; the French Space Agency
Bronze Medal; and the NASA GSFC's Robert C. Baumann Memorial Award
for Mission Success. Cary Ludtke, Ball Aerospace's vice president
and general manager for Operational Space, has assumed leadership
of both the Operational Space and Civil Space business units.
Ludtke joined Ball Aerospace in 1986. Under his leadership the
Operational Space unit demonstrated outstanding performance on
cost-reimbursable contracts, as well as on the fixed-price programs
that are the hallmark of Ball's commercial remote-sensing business.
Ball Aerospace 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. Over 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 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; and changes in foreign exchange rates, tax rates and
activities of foreign subsidiaries. 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. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070405/LATH071
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. CONTACT: Roz Brown of Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., +1-303-533-6059 or +1-720-934-9980,
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