Ball Aerospace Completes Schmidt Corrector Optic Bonding for Kepler
May 30 2007 - 4:04PM
PR Newswire (US)
BOULDER, Colo., May 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp. (NYSE:BLL) has successfully completed the
critical milestone of bonding the Schmidt Corrector optic to its
mounting ring for the Kepler Mission. Ball anticipates delivery of
all Kepler optics by late-June. The spacecraft integration is
scheduled to begin in August 2007, while Kepler photometer
integration with the spacecraft will begin in July 2008. (Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070530/LAW113) Ball is
building both the photometer and spacecraft for the Kepler mission,
and will manage system integration and testing. A Discovery
mission, Kepler is NASA's first mission capable of finding
Earth-size and smaller planets in the habitable zone of solar-like
stars. Photo accompanying this release is available at
http://www.ballaerospace.com/ The photometer consists of a
classical Schmidt telescope with an aperture of 95 cm, a primary
mirror of 1.4 meters, and an array of 42 CCDs at the focus. It
features a focal plane array with more than 95 million pixels that
will measure the brightness of 100,000 stars every 30 minutes. The
Schmidt optic corrector plate is suspended from its mounting ring
3-meters (10 feet) above the telescope's primary mirror, and will
be used to correct spherical aberration after the telescope is
on-orbit. Kepler is scheduled to launch in November, 2008. 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. 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 for beverage,
food and household 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 2006 sales of $6.6 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 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/20070530/LAW113
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. CONTACT: Media, Roz Brown of Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp., +1-303-939-6146 or +1-303-533-6059, Web
site: http://www.ballaerospace.com/
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