Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. will design and build two cloud cameras for the Glory mission under contract to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The Glory mission is part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program to improve our understanding of what forces influence global environmental changes and how to predict those changes.

Glory is a remote-sensing Earth-orbiting observatory scheduled to launch in 2008 for a three-year mission life. The mission will collect data on aerosols as well as radiant energy emitted by the sun.

Two instruments will be deployed in order to accomplish these objectives. They include the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS); and the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM). The Ball Aerospace cloud cameras complement the APS instrument, being developed by Raytheon Civil Space Programs.

"These semi-custom CT-633 star tracker cameras have been the standard for Ball Aerospace missions for over a decade and include the wide-field camera onboard the recently launched CALIPSO mission," said David L. Taylor, president and chief executive officer of Ball Aerospace. "Since 1967 Ball Aerospace has designed and built six generations of versatile, reliable, and cost-effective star trackers that continue to reach new levels of performance."

As part of the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor package, the cloud cameras will distinguish between cloud fields and clear scenes over land and the ocean, in order to collect data on chemical, microphysical, and optical properties, and spatial and temporal distributions of aerosols. At the same time, the TIM instrument, being developed by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, will collect total solar irradiance data. Both instruments should help shed light on how human factors contribute to global warming compared to natural climate variability caused by the sun.

Ball Aerospace celebrates its 50th year in business in 2006. The company began building pointing controls for military rockets in 1956, and later won a contract to build one of NASA's first spacecraft, the Orbiting Solar Observatory. Over the years, the company has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific 'firsts' and now acts as a technology innovator in important national missions.

Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which develops sensors, spacecraft, systems and components for government and commercial customers. Ball reported 2005 sales of $5.8 billion and the company employs 15,600 people worldwide.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to 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 in Exhibit 99.2 in our 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 and preferences; availability and cost of raw materials, including 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; failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or production cost reductions, including those associated with our beverage can end project; the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; changes in foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign subsidiaries; and the effect of LIFO accounting. Factors that might affect our aerospace segment include: funding, authorization, availability and returns of government contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts. Factors that might affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; integration of recently acquired businesses; regulatory action or laws including tax, environmental and workplace safety; governmental investigations; technological developments and innovations; goodwill impairment; antitrust, patent and other litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; changes to the company's pension plans; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to statutory audits or other effects.

SOURCE: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.