Ball Aerospace's QuikSCAT to Fly Fifth Year
November 18 2003 - 11:54AM
PR Newswire (US)
Ball Aerospace's QuikSCAT to Fly Fifth Year BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 18
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Based on its consistent performance in
delivering important weather data to users around the world, NASA
has extended the on-orbit operations of the Quick Scatterometer
(QuikSCAT) satellite built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corp., for a fifth year. Launched in 1999, the satellite completed
its 20,000th orbit in early 2003. QuikSCAT has been measuring winds
over approximately 90 percent of the ice-free ocean on a daily
basis for four years -- two years beyond its anticipated mission.
With the apparent loss of Midori-II, the Advanced Earth Observing
Satellite, (Adeos-2) last month, the information collected by the
QuikSCAT scatterometer regarding ocean-wind data is more important
than ever before. "QuikSCAT continues to perform exceptionally
well," said Chip Barnes, QuikSCAT program manager for Ball
Aerospace. "It was the first in a line of spacecraft based on the
Ball Commercial Platform 2000 (BCP 2000) that we anticipate to be
equally effective and reliable." Additional Ball Aerospace-built
satellite busses based on the BCP 2000 design include: Quickbird,
built for DigitalGlobe and launched in 2001; CloudSat, built for
JPL under NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program, scheduled
to launch in 2004; the National Polar-orbiting Operational
Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP),
under construction for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the
NPOESS Integrated Program Office slated to launch in 2006; and
NextView, a next-generation, commercial high-resolution imaging
satellite to be built for DigitalGlobe under its contract to the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency. QuikSCAT was the first
satellite to use NASA's Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition procurement
process. Ball Aerospace provided the spacecraft bus, launch
interface systems, system integration, test and launch support.
Ball Aerospace also performs mission operations with the University
of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics as a
subcontractor. The QuikSCAT data is used operationally by the
National Center for Environmental Prediction, a branch of the
National Weather Service and the European Centre for Medium-Range
Weather Forecasts. The use of the data in operational systems is
the result of a cooperative effort among NASA, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration and European countries. Ball
Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is one of the world's leading suppliers of
metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries.
The company also owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. With
the addition of Ball Packaging Europe, acquired in December 2002,
Ball expects to report 2003 sales of approximately $4.9 billion, of
which approximately $4.4 billion will come from its two packaging
segments and $500 million from its aerospace and technologies
segment. The information in this news release contains
"forward-looking" statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ
materially from those expressed or implied. As time passes, the
relevance and accuracy of forward-looking statements contained in
this release may change. The company currently does not intend to
update any particular forward-looking statement except as it deems
necessary at quarterly or annual release of earnings. Please refer
to the Form 10-Q filed by Ball Corporation on Nov. 10, 2003, for a
summary of key risk factors that could affect actual results or
outcomes. Factors that might affect the packaging segments of the
company are: fluctuation in consumer and customer demand;
competitive packaging material availability, pricing and
substitution; the weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields;
company and industry productive capacity and competitive activity;
lack of productivity improvement or production cost reductions;
regulatory action or laws, including the German mandatory deposit
or other restrictive packaging laws and environmental and workplace
safety regulations; availability and cost of raw materials, energy
and transportation; the ability or inability to pass on to
customers changes in these costs, particularly resin, steel and
aluminum; pricing and ability or inability to sell scrap;
international business risks (including foreign exchange rates and
tax rates) particularly in the United States, Europe and in
developing countries such as China and Brazil; and the effect of
LIFO accounting on earnings. Factors that may affect the aerospace
segment are: funding, authorization and availability of government
contracts and the nature and continuation of those contracts; and
technical uncertainty associated with aerospace segment contracts.
Factors that could affect the company as a whole include those
listed plus: successful and unsuccessful acquisitions, joint
ventures or divestitures and the integration activities associated
therewith including the integration and operation of the business
of Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, now known as Ball Packaging Europe; the
inability to purchase the company's common stock; insufficient or
reduced cash flow; regulatory action or laws including those
related to corporate governance and financial reporting,
regulations and standards; actual and estimated business
consolidation and investment costs and the net realizable value of
assets associated with these activities; goodwill impairment;
changes in generally accepted accounting principles or their
interpretation; litigation; antitrust, intellectual property,
consumer and other issues; strikes; boycotts; increases in various
employee benefits and labor costs, specifically pension, medical
and health care costs incurred in the countries in which Ball has
operations; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the
company's defined benefit retirement plans; interest rates and
level of company debt, including floating rate debt; terrorist
activities, war or catastrophic events that disrupt or impact
production, supply or pricing of the company's goods and services,
including raw materials and energy costs, or disrupt or impact the
credit and financing of the company's businesses; and U.S. and
foreign economic conditions. Copyright @2003 by Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp.
http://www.ball.com/aerospace/media/images/qscat2.html DATASOURCE:
Ball Corporation CONTACT: Roz Brown, +1-303-939-6146, or Rachelle
Wood, +1-303-939-6606, both of Ball Corporation, Web site:
http://www.ball.com/aerospace/media/images/qscat2.html
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