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 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.

Forward-Looking Statements:

The information in this news release contains "forward-looking" statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those expressed or implied. As time passes, the relevance and accuracy of forward- looking statements contained in this release may change. The Company currently does not intend to update any particular forward-looking statement except, as it deems necessary at quarterly or annual release of earnings. Please refer to the Form 10-Q filed by Ball Corporation on November 14, 2002, for a summary of key risk factors that could affect actual results or outcomes. Factors that might affect the Packaging segments or business of the Company are: fluctuation in consumer and customer demand; competitive packaging material availability, pricing and substitution; the weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; company and industry productive capacity and competitive activity; lack of productivity improvement or production cost reductions; regulatory action or laws, the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging legislation, such as recycling laws; availability and cost of raw materials, energy and transportation; the ability or inability to pass on to customers changes in these costs, particularly resin, steel and aluminum; pricing and ability or inability to sell scrap; and international business risks (including foreign exchange rates) particularly in the United States, Europe and in developing countries such as China and Brazil. Factors that may affect the Aerospace segment or business are: funding, authorization and availability of government contracts and the nature and continuation of those contracts; and technical uncertainty associated with Aerospace segment contracts. Factors that could affect the Company as a whole include those listed plus: successful and unsuccessful acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures and the integration activities associated therewith including the integration and operation of the business of Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, now known as Ball Packaging Europe; the inability to purchase the Company's common stock; regulatory action or laws including those related to corporate governance and financial reporting, regulations and standards, business consolidation investment costs and the net realizable value of assets associated with the Company's activities; goodwill impairment; changes in generally accepted accounting principles or their interpretation; litigation; antitrust, intellectual property, consumer and other issues; strikes; boycotts; increases in various employee benefits and labor costs, specifically pension, medical and health care costs incurred in the countries in which Ball has operations; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; interest rates and level of company debt; terrorist activities, war or catastrophic events; and U.S. and foreign economic conditions.

SOURCE: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.