Ball Aerospace's Lisa Hardaway Named Engineer of the Year by Colorado AIAA

Hardaway was Ball's program manager for the company's Ralph instrument aboard NASA's New Horizons mission.  The spacecraft completed a flyby of Pluto in July 2015, allowing Ball's Ralph camera to help return the closest images ever seen of the dwarf planet. Because the journey to Pluto would take nearly 10 years, the Ball team working under Hardaway was tasked with building a very small, extremely lightweight camera that required minimal power. The first-of-its-kind mission, New Horizons traveled more than three billion miles to come within 12,500 km (7,400 miles) of Pluto. The spacecraft continues to provide scientists with stunning images that reveal Pluto's exotic and varied landscape as it makes it way through the Kuiper belt.

"We chose Lisa as the 2016 RMS Engineer of the Year based on the wide-ranging impact her work on the Ralph program had on the aerospace industry at large," said Rusty Powell, Honors and Awards Chair for the AIAA RMS.  "We also considered her mentorship of women undergraduates in aerospace engineering."

Hardaway joined Ball Aerospace in 1995 and, in addition to her work on New Horizons, played a significant role on Ball's work for the Hubble Space Telescope, including the Wide Field Camera 3, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.  She was also instrumental on Ball's Deep Impact mission and the company's star tracker program.

Hardaway received the 2015 Women in Aerospace (WIA) Leadership Award for outstanding dedication to space exploration.  The WIA Awards celebrate women's professional excellence in aerospace, annually recognizing female leaders who have made outstanding contributions to the aerospace community.  WIA acknowledged Hardaway for her leadership skills, as well as her guidance, support, and mentoring of female engineers throughout her career.  Hardaway is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and the current Treasurer of the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Astronomical Society.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the world's largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession. The Rocky Mountain Section of AIAA serves aerospace professionals in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana through local events including monthly speaker programs, public policy, education, professional development, and a regional conference known as the Annual Technical Symposium. To find out more about how you can become involved in AIAA at the local level contact Christopher Zeller RM-AIAA Outgoing Chair or go to: AIAA-RM.org.

Ball Aerospace pioneers discoveries that enable our customers to perform beyond expectation and protect what matters most.  We create innovative space solutions, enable more accurate weather forecasts, drive insightful observations of our planet, deliver actionable data and intelligence, and ensure those who defend our freedom go forward bravely and return home safely. For more information, visit www.ball.com/aerospace or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) supplies innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 15,200 people worldwide and reported 2015 sales of $8.0 billion. For more information, visit www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" and similar expressions 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 in our Form 10-K, which are available on our website and at www.sec.gov. Factors that might affect: a) our packaging segments include product demand fluctuations; availability/cost of raw materials; competitive packaging, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; crop yields; competitive activity; failure to achieve productivity improvements or cost  reductions; mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; customer and supplier consolidation, power and supply chain influence; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; political instability and sanctions; and changes in foreign exchange or tax rates; b) our aerospace segment include funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts; c) the company as a whole include those listed plus: changes in senior management; regulatory action or issues including tax, environmental, health and workplace safety, including U.S. FDA and other actions or public concerns affecting products filled in our containers, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the manufacturing process; technological developments and innovations; litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; uncertainties surrounding the U.S. government budget, sequestration and debt limit; reduced cash flow; ability to achieve cost-out initiatives; interest rates affecting our debt; and successful or unsuccessful acquisitions and divestitures, including, with respect to the proposed Rexam PLC acquisition, the effect of the announcement of the acquisition on our business relationships, operating results and business generally; the occurrence of any event or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of our definitive agreement with Rexam PLC in respect of the acquisition; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against us related to the definitive agreement with Rexam PLC; the failure to satisfy conditions to completion of the acquisition of Rexam PLC, including the receipt of all required regulatory approvals; and failure to complete the previously announced sale of certain proposed divested assets in order to obtain such regulatory approvals.

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SOURCE Ball Aerospace

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