Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has opened an office here to anchor its pursuit of the Instrument Unit contract for the Ares I launch vehicle, as well as strengthen the company's ongoing NASA and defense programs.

"Huntsville has long been home to an important customer base for Ball Aerospace, dating back to the Skylab program of the early 1970s," said David L. Taylor, president and chief executive officer of Ball Aerospace. "Between NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Army's Redstone Arsenal, our technologies have contributed to numerous programs and accomplishments. As the Huntsville area continues to grow in importance, it makes sense for us to be closer to our customers in the region."

Ball Aerospace is pursing a contract to provide integration and production support to NASA for the Ares I Instrument Unit. The Ares I launch vehicle will launch the Orion Crew Vehicle, the spacecraft currently being designed to replace the space shuttle after its retirement in 2010. Ares I, and the follow-on Ares V vehicle, are key elements of NASA's return to the moon. The company is lead mission integrator for Discovery missions such as Deep Impact and Kepler. Ball Aerospace also provides key defense technologies such as pointing, acquisition and tracking for missile defense, sensor systems, and engineering support services for the U.S. military.

Ball is a key RF antenna provider for a broad variety of army missile programs, and supports U.S. Army aviation with critical mission enhancements that include delivery of more than 600 silicon vidicon cameras and an upgraded solid-state replacement camera. Ball Aerospace is also under contract to build phased arrays for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.

Ball Aerospace has approximately $24 million in business in the Huntsville area with suppliers that include: Axsys Technologies, Inc., AZ Technology, SEA Wire & Cable Inc, Technical Micronics Control, and the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and many others. These suppliers work with Ball Aerospace on such programs as Kepler, as well as the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope 2008 servicing mission, and the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System.

Ball Aerospace supports critical missions of important national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. Over the past 50 years, Ball Aerospace has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific "firsts" and now acts as a technology innovator for the aerospace market.

Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2006 sales of $6.6 billion and employs 15,500 people.

Forward-Looking Statements

This 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 Exhibit 99.2 in our Form 10-K, which are available at our Web site and at http://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; crop 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; and changes in foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign subsidiaries. Factors that might affect our aerospace segment include: funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts. Factors that might affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: accounting changes; successful or unsuccessful 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; pension changes; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to statutory audits or other effects.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: rbrown@ball.com

SOURCE: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.