Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is an American manufacturer of spacecraft, components and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Ball Corporation (
NYSE: BALL), with primary offices in
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...
, and facilities in
Broomfield and
Westminster in
Colorado, with smaller offices in
New Mexico,
Ohio, northern
Virginia,
Missouri and
Maryland.
Ball Aerospace began building pointing controls for military rockets in 1956 (the aerospace part of the Ball Corporation was then known as Ball Brothers Research Corporation) and later won a contract to build some of
NASA's first spacecraft, the
Orbiting Solar Observatory satellites. The company has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific projects and continues to provide aerospace technology to NASA and related industries.
Other products and services for the aerospace industry include lubricants, optical systems,
star trackers and antennas. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ball Corporation, Ball Aerospace was cited in 2014 as the 88th largest defense contractor in the world. Both parent and subsidiary headquarters are co-located in Broomfield, Colorado.
Participating projects
* The
Orbital Express autonomous satellite servicing mission
* The
WorldView-2 Earth observation satellite
An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...
.
*
AEROS (satellite)[p.12 AEROS]
*
Ralph (''New Horizons'' instrument)
*
Chandra X-ray Observatory aspect camera (star tracker) and SIM (science instrument module)
*
Hubble Space Telescope: seven science instruments (
COS
Cos, COS, CoS, coS or Cos. may refer to:
Mathematics, science and technology
* Carbonyl sulfide
* Class of service (CoS or COS), a network header field defined by the IEEE 802.1p task group
* Class of service (COS), a parameter in telephone sys ...
,
WFC3,
ACS,
NICMOS,
STIS,
COSTAR, and
GHRS), two star trackers, five major equipment subsystems, and custom tools to support service missions
*
James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...
optical mirror system
Ball Aerospace - Webb Space Telescope
/ref>
References
External links
Ball Aerospace website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball Aerospace
Ball Corporation
Aerospace companies of the United States
Defense companies of the United States
Spacecraft manufacturers
Manufacturing companies based in Colorado
Companies based in Boulder, Colorado
Companies based in Broomfield, Colorado
Manufacturing companies established in 1956
1956 establishments in Colorado
Science and technology in Colorado
American companies established in 1956