Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has joined an elite team led by The Boeing Company in a competitive bid for the next-generation geostationary weather and environment system for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system, known as GOES-R, is the evolution of NOAA's geostationary satellite-based weather capability. The Boeing GOES-R team submitted its proposal on May 10.

Ball Aerospace, with its deep industry experience in spaceborne remote sensing instruments, is tasked to lead the Payload Instrument Accommodation, which includes delivering the integrated and tested payload suite. Ball is currently under contract to provide the integrated NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft and four integrated NPOESS instruments.

According to President and CEO Dave Taylor, "Ball's extensive experience in designing and building spacecraft and remote sensing instruments, plus our instrument integration work such as NPP, strongly compliment the Boeing team."

The GOES satellite family is the backbone of U.S. weather forecasting, environmental remote sensing and climate prediction. GOES spacecraft help meteorologists observe and predict local weather events, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, fog, flash floods, and other severe weather. In addition, GOES observations have proven helpful in monitoring dust storms, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires.

Instruments and subsystems for environmental satellites are a traditionally strong line of business for Ball Aerospace. Some of these include the Color Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), three generations of Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV/2) Radiometers and three generations of Stratospheric Aerosol & Gas Experiments (SAGE). Ball Aerospace also led the instrument integrations on both the QuikSCAT and ICESat earth science spacecraft.

Ball Aerospace joins Harris Corp., Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. and Carr Astronautics on the Boeing team.

Ball Corporation is a supplier of metal and plastic packaging products, primarily for the beverage and food industries. The company also owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which develops sensors, spacecraft, systems and components for government and commercial markets. Ball Corporation employs more than 13,200 people and reported 2004 sales of $5.4 billion.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this news release contains "forward-looking" statements and other statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," and variations of same and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking 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 the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in Exhibit 99.2 in the most recent Form 10-K. These filings are available at our Web site and at www.sec.gov. Factors that might affect our packaging segments include fluctuation in consumer and customer demand; availability and cost of raw materials, particularly the recent significant increases in resin, steel, aluminum and energy costs, and the ability to pass such increases on to customers; competitive packaging availability, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; industry productive capacity and competitive activity; lack of productivity improvement or production cost reductions; the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; international business risks, including foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign subsidiaries; and the effect of LIFO accounting on earnings. Factors that might affect aerospace segment include: funding, authorization and availability of government contracts and the nature and continuation of those contracts; and technical uncertainty associated with segment contracts. Factors that could affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; regulatory action or laws including environmental and workplace safety; governmental investigations; goodwill impairment; antitrust and other litigation; strikes; boycotts; increases in employee benefits and labor costs; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to statutory audits or management's evaluation of the company's internal control over financial reporting.

SOURCE: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.