Ball Aerospace Begins Integration of WorldView-2 Imaging Instrument
September 03 2008 - 9:49AM
PR Newswire (US)
BOULDER and LONGMONT, Colo., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and DigitalGlobe announced today
that Ball has begun the integration of the completed imaging
instrument for the next-generation WorldView-2 commercial imaging
satellite being built for DigitalGlobe. WorldView-2 will expand
DigitalGlobe's collection capabilities by nearly one million square
kilometers per day, enable intra-day revisits to a specific
geographic area, and enhance DigitalGlobe's ability to collect
up-to-date imagery for customer needs. (Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080903/LAW023) When launched
in the third quarter of 2009, WorldView-2 will expand
DigitalGlobe's capabilities and product offerings by increasing
collection rates and providing enhanced multi-spectral imagery.
WorldView-2 will make DigitalGlobe the only commercial earth
imagery provider with 8-band multi-spectral capability, which
enables many more spectral applications through a more robust color
palette for crisper color imagery products and services and
enhanced analysis of the earth's surface. WorldView-2 will join the
highly successful Ball-built predecessors on orbit, WorldView-1,
launched in 2007, and QuickBird, in 2001. "The excellent progress
we're making on the WorldView-2 spacecraft results from our proven
record with the BCP product line," said Ball Aerospace President
and CEO, David L. Taylor. "When launched, WorldView-2's advanced
Control Moment Gyros (CMGs), high collection capacity, and rich
multispectral capabilities will provide DigitalGlobe's customers
with precise mapping and change detection at unprecedented
quantities and spectral qualities." "We are pleased with the
progress of WorldView-2 and are looking forward to making its
impressive capabilities available to our commercial, civil
government and defense and intelligence customers late next year,"
said Jill Smith, DigitalGlobe's president and CEO. "We have an
existing constellation of sub-meter satellites that already
provides almost one million square kilometers per day of collection
capacity. The addition of WorldView-2 will significantly enhance
our collection capacity, revisit rate and enable more world imagery
products and services to more customers." Integration of the
WorldView-2 telescope, the integrated focal plane, and associated
electronics will be followed by system performance and
environmental testing. WorldView-2 was recently moved to Ball's
new, state-of-the-art clean room and integration facility to
accommodate the height of the integrated Ball Commercial Platform
(BCP) 5000 spacecraft bus and WorldView-2 Instrument. The BCP 5000
spacecraft is designed to handle the next-generation optical and
synthetic aperture radar remote sensing payloads and is currently
meeting or exceeding all performance specifications on the
WorldView-1 satellite. The high-performance BCP 5000 has a design
life of more than seven years, and provides a platform with
increased power, resolution, agility, target selection,
flexibility, transmission capability and data storage. All Ball
Aerospace designed and built WorldView-2 flight boxes and
engineering development units have been delivered to the program,
including a precision temperature control electronics board.
WorldView-2's advanced CMGs, currently demonstrating superb
performance for WorldView-1, are also ready for integration. Ball
Aerospace is under contract with DigitalGlobe to provide mission
system engineering, design and manufacture of the spacecraft bus
and integration of the instrument, EMI/EMC and environmental
testing of the integrated satellite and on-orbit checkout. About
DigitalGlobe Longmont, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe
(http://www.digitalglobe.com/) is a leading global content provider
of high-resolution world imagery solutions. Sourced from our own
advanced satellite constellation and aerial network, our imagery
solutions deliver real world perspective to governments,
businesses, technology developers and humanitarian associations
worldwide. The company's imagery solutions consist of one of the
world's largest image libraries, growing at a rate of up to 1
million square kilometers per day and distributed and accessed
through online search and retrieval, production ready image layers,
development tool-kits for internet enabled applications and
devices, and software solutions for integration with GIS products
and services. DigitalGlobe currently operates the
highest-resolution commercial satellite constellation with
QuickBird and the first of two next-generation satellites,
WorldView-1. The company plans to launch its second next-generation
satellite, WorldView-2, in the third quarter of 2009. DigitalGlobe
is a registered trademark of DigitalGlobe. About Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp. 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. Since 1956, Ball Aerospace has been
responsible for numerous technological and scientific 'firsts' and
acts as a technology innovator for the aerospace market. About Ball
Corporation Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is a supplier of
high-quality metal and plastic packaging products for beverage,
food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other
technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball
Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 15,500 people
worldwide and reported 2007 sales of $7.4 billion. 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 product 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; competitive activity;
failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or
production cost reductions, including our beverage can end project;
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; changes in senior management, the
current global credit squeeze, successful or unsuccessful
acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; integration of
recently acquired businesses; regulatory action or laws including
tax, environmental, health and workplace safety, including in
respect of chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the
manufacturing process; 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/20080903/LAW023
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Ball Corporation;
DigitalGlobe CONTACT: Roz Brown of Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., +1-303-533-6059, ; or Andrea Krull of
DigitalGlobe, +1-781-487-4639, Web site:
http://www.digitalglobe.com/ http://www.ballaerospace.com/
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