Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has successfully completed assembly and performance testing of WorldView I, the remote sensing satellite built for DigitalGlobe(R). Ball Aerospace, DigitalGlobe and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) have completed their comprehensive pre-shipment review and the satellite is being readied for delivery to California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base for a mid-September launch.
Ball Aerospace built the satellite bus and the WorldView 60 camera for WorldView I, the next-generation commercial remote sensing satellite. The satellite will provide unprecedented high resolution imaging capability for DigitalGlobe’s customers, including the NGA and other customers around the world. Once launched, WorldView I will be the world’s only half-meter commercial imaging satellite and will provide still higher resolution capability than the QuickBird satellite, currently the world’s highest resolution commercial Earth imaging satellite in operation.
“Ball Aerospace has worked hand-in-hand with DigitalGlobe since the mid 1990’s to supply the QuickBird, WorldView I, and soon WorldView II satellites,” said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace. “The constellation of commercial spacecraft created by this partnership significantly meets the increased demand for remote sensing imagery.”
The Control Moment Gyroscopes mounted on the WorldView I spacecraft will afford the flexibility to capture more imagery than ever before. This high spatial resolution, panchromatic imagery is used for civil government mapping, land-use planning, disaster relief, exploration, defense and intelligence, and visualization and simulation environments.
For WorldView II, Ball Aerospace is building a Ball Commercial Platform 5000 spacecraft bus, and will integrate the remote sensing instrument. WorldView 2 will be ready for launch in late 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 acts as a technology innovator for the aerospace market.
Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) 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.
