BOULDER, Colo., 24 May 2005. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has joined an team led by The Boeing Co. 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 joins Harris Corp., Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. and Carr Astronautics on 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.

Ball Aerospace, with its 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."

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 Corp. 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 Corp. employs more than 13,200 people and reported 2004 sales of $5.4 billion. For more information, see www.ballaerospace.com.