Ball Aerospace Awarded JPSS-1 Satellite Contract

BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. a contract for the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) satellite.   Procured by NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), JPSS-1 will ensure continuity of vital climate and weather data records.  

Ball Aerospace will be responsible for designing and building the JPSS-1 satellite bus, integrating all instruments, and performing satellite-level testing and launch support.  Ball Aerospace is also under contract to deliver NPP, the precursor spacecraft to JPSS-1, as well as the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), one of the critical scientific instruments to fly aboard the spacecraft.  On September 21, NPP completed its pre-environmental review in preparation for pre-flight testing.

"We are eager to begin work on this critical national weather and climate system to meet NOAA's 2014 launch requirement," said David L. Taylor, Ball Aerospace President and CEO. "Ball Aerospace is deeply committed to the success of the JPSS program and plans to mirror our successful performance on NPP in order to provide NASA and NOAA the best value system."  

JPSS-1, a clone of the NPP satellite, employs the Ball Commercial Platform (BCP) 2000 spacecraft bus.  With more than 50-years of successful on-orbit operations, the BCP spacecraft line is a proven, customizable spacecraft design that accommodates a wide range of payloads.

JPSS is the restructured civilian portion of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). This includes the satellites and sensors that support civil weather and climate measurements, as well as a ground system that will be shared with the Department of Defense weather satellite system. NASA is acting as the acquisition agent to procure these assets. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., has the lead for acquisition of the restructured program for NOAA.

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. For more information visit www.ballaerospace.com.

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) is a supplier of high-quality 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 2009 sales of more than $7.3 billion including discontinued operations.

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SOURCE Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.