Ball Aerospace's NextSat Delivers First-Rate Performance
April 10 2007 - 7:19PM
PR Newswire (US)
BOULDER, Colo., April 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Ball
Aerospace Next Generation Satellite and Commodities Spacecraft
(NextSat/CSC) has shown excellent performance during pre-separation
servicing demonstrations in the first weeks following its March 8
launch with the Boeing Company's Autonomous Space Transfer and
Robotic Orbiter (ASTRO). (Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070410/LATU115 ) NextSat and
ASTRO are in the first month of a three-month mission for the
Orbital Express (OE) Advanced Technology Demonstration Program led
by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. To date, OE
spacecraft activation checkouts have been completed along with a
robotic video survey of the vehicles, successful demonstrations of
autonomous refueling with the Fluid Transfer System, and robotic
transfer of a battery Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) between the
ASTRO and NextSat/CSC. Following launch, the ASTRO spacecraft
experienced an anomaly with the guidance and control systems. To
allow time to correct the problem, control of the mated pair was
shifted from ASTRO to NextSat and the OE team used NextSat's
guidance system to successfully point the mated stack towards the
sun. Since then, revised software has been successfully loaded and
validated, and the ASTRO vehicle is currently controlling the OE
stack in the planned nominal mode. The OE mission is designed to
demonstrate the capability of robotic refueling, autonomous
rendezvous and docking, as well as repairs and equipment upgrades
of a spacecraft on-orbit. When initial mated demonstrations are
completed, the two spacecraft will perform operations to eject the
mounting ring used to mechanically support NextSat during launch,
enabling the two spacecraft to separate and operate independently.
Future demonstrations will include short range separation,
proximity operations, and capture, followed by progressively
farther-field rendezvous and capture operations from a variety of
ASTRO approach directions. 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 (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. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070410/LATU115
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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