Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. announced today that its WorldView-2 remote sensing satellite built for DigitalGlobe has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base for a scheduled October 6, 2009 launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket into a Sun-synchronous orbit.
Ball Aerospace announced that it had completed environmental testing for WorldView-2 on August 5. The satellite was then shipped to Lompoc, California to begin on-site testing prior to launch. Over the next several weeks, engineers will integrate the satellite with the launch vehicle and perform extensive tests to ensure the satellite and rocket can launch successfully.
The Ball Aerospace BCP 5000 spacecraft, utilized for both the WorldView-1 and Worldview-2, is designed to handle both next-generation optical and synthetic aperture radar remote sensing payloads and is currently meeting or exceeding all performance specifications on the operational WorldView-1 satellite. The high-performance BCP 5000 has a design life of more than seven years, and provides a platform with increased power, agility, flexibility, transmission capability and data storage. The spacecraft’s control-moment gyroscopes will afford the flexibility to capture more imagery than ever before.
DigitalGlobe is a leading provider of commercial high-resolution, world imagery products and services.
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.
Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging 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 14,000 people worldwide and reported 2008 sales of approximately $7.6 billion.
