BOULDER, Colo., March 21 /Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has been awarded three contracts to perform technology development of innovative Earth science remote-sensing instruments under NASA's Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). NASA reviewed 28 proposals for this technology development before awarding nine contracts.

Ball Aerospace staff consultant Tom Kampe was awarded a contract as principal investigator on the Spaceborne Infrared Atmospheric Sounder for Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SIRAS-G). The SIRAS-G contract demonstrates technology that could form the basis of the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite, a sensor suite being procured to replace the atmospheric sounder instrument that is now part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) system. GOES is a system of satellites that provide observations of the Earth's weather and environment. Ball Aerospace teamed with Dr. R. Steven Nerem of the University of Colorado on the second award, the Interferometric Range Transceiver (IRT) for Measuring Temporal Gravity Variations. For IRT, Ball Aerospace is developing a high-precision inter-spacecraft ranging instrument designed to be flown as the follow-on to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission that is currently on-orbit. On the third winning effort, Ball Aerospace supported a Goddard Space Flight Center team led by Dr. Scott Janz on the Geostationary Spectrograph (GeoSpec) for Earth and Atmospheric Science Applications. Ball Aerospace will procure and package the 2-D focal planes, design the interface electronics, and test the detector subsystem.

"The three Ball Aerospace contract awards form the basis for Earth science instruments that could fly in the next decade," said Bill Gail, Ball Aerospace director of Earth Science Advanced Programs for Civil Space Systems. "These cutting edge instruments will provide substantially improved observations of Earth's atmosphere, oceans and continents, helping us better understand our planet." The NASA Instrument Incubator Program supports development of new and innovative technologies for the Earth Science Enterprise. The program focuses on technologies leading to smaller, less resource-intensive, and less expensive flight instruments.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. provides remote sensing systems and solutions to the aerospace and defense markets. It is a subsidiary of Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) which in addition to owning Ball Aerospace is one of the leading suppliers of metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries. With the addition of Ball Packaging Europe, acquired in December 2002, Ball expects sales in 2003 of approximately $5.1 billion, $4.6 billion from its packaging segment and $500 million from its aerospace and technologies segment.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. provides imaging, communications, and information systems, products, software, and services to government and commercial aerospace customers.

Based in Boulder, Colo., Ball Aerospace is a subsidiary of Ball Corporation. Ball Corporation is one of the world’s leading suppliers of metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries and had sales of $3.9 billion in 2002, of which approximately $500 million came from Ball Aerospace.

Ball Aerospace employs approximately 2,500 people worldwide. Because of the company's broad expertise and world-class facilities, Ball Aerospace is able to serve a wide range of customers including NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense and a number of prime contractors from within the aerospace industry.

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