Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. today announced the receipt of a contract award to develop a system architecture for the next generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) system, planned for launch in 2012. The GOES satellite system provides imagery and associated data used to predict our planet's weather and to monitor the environment. Under this contract, Ball Aerospace will develop an end-to-end configuration for the satellites and associated ground system for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"We are very committed to the work being done on the GOES program," said David L. Taylor, president and chief executive officer, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. "Instruments and spacecraft that are designed to study weather and the environment are a big part of our heritage at Ball Aerospace and a key focus for our current and future business."

The GOES satellites provide critical data used by forecasters at the National Weather Service to predict the weather and monitor many aspects of the environment. From their geosynchronous orbits, these satellites continuously observe the Earth, tracking routine weather patterns as well as the development of severe weather such as hurricanes and tornadoes. The GOES data are increasingly important to forecasters as they strive to improve the reliability of weather and climate predictions. NOAA will use the results from the GOES-R system architecture studies to enhance the performance of the GOES system in support of this objective.

Ball Aerospace will apply its nearly 50 years of experience building space instrumentation and high performance spacecraft to the GOES-R architecture study. The company has extensive environmental and weather spacecraft and sensor experience, including two series of instruments used by NASA and NOAA to monitor ozone depletion. Ball Aerospace has built spacecraft for NASA to measure winds over the Earth's oceans, and is currently developing spacecraft and sensors for two NASA missions to evaluate the three-dimensional global distribution of clouds. Ball Aerospace is building the spacecraft for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) for NASA, and is building the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) instrument for NPOESS. In support of GOES-R, Ball Aerospace is also nearing completion of a development study for one of the two primary sensors, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). This extensive experience of successfully building weather and climate sensing instruments and highly capable spacecraft is expected to benefit the development of the GOES-R system architecture.

Ball Aerospace conducts domestic and international business in the defense, civil and commercial space arenas, providing best value and innovative solutions. The company supports national policy-makers, the military services, NASA and other U.S. Government agencies, as well as numerous aerospace industry companies.

Ball Corporation is one of the world's leading suppliers of metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries. The company also owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. With the addition of Ball Packaging Europe, acquired in December 2002, Ball expects to report 2003 sales of approximately $5 billion, of which approximately $4.5 billion will come from its two packaging segments 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 August 12, 2003, for a summary of key risk factors that could affect actual results or outcomes. Factors that might affect the packaging segments 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, including the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws and environmental and workplace safety regulations; 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; international business risks (including foreign exchange rates and tax rates) particularly in the United States, Europe and in developing countries such as China and Brazil; and the effect of LIFO accounting on earnings. Factors that may affect the aerospace segment 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; insufficient or reduced cash flow; regulatory action or laws including those related to corporate governance and financial reporting, regulations and standards; actual and estimated business consolidation and investment costs and the net realizable value of assets associated with these 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, including floating rate debt; terrorist activities, war or catastrophic events that disrupt or impact production, supply or pricing of the company's goods and services, including raw materials and energy costs, or disrupt or impact the credit and financing of the company's businesses; and U.S. and foreign economic conditions.

SOURCE: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.