Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., commonly Ball Aerospace, was an American manufacturer of spacecraft, components and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. Until 2024, the firm was a wholly owned subsidiary of

Ball Corporation Ball Corporation is an American aluminum manufacturing company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. It is best known for its early production of glass jars, lids, and related products used for home canning. Since its founding in Buffalo, N ...

, with primary offices in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

, and facilities in Broomfield and

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, with smaller offices in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, northern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. It was acquired by BAE Systems Inc. in 2024, and is operated as a new division within BAE called Space & Mission systems.

History

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 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's first spacecraft, the

Orbiting Solar Observatory The Orbiting Solar Observatory (abbreviated OSO) Program was the name of a series of American space telescopes primarily intended to study the Sun, though they also included important non-solar experiments. Eight were launched successfully into ...

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 tracker A star tracker is an optical device that measures the positions of stars using photocells or a camera. As the positions of many stars have been measured by astronomers to a high degree of accuracy, a star tracker on a satellite or spacecraft may ...

s and antennas. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ball Corporation, Ball Aerospace was cited in 2023 as the 54th largest defense contractor in the world. Both parent and subsidiary headquarters are co-located in Broomfield, Colorado. In August 2023, Ball Corporation agreed to divest Ball Aerospace to BAE Systems Inc. for $5.6 billion in cash. On February 14, 2024 The companies announced that all regulatory approvals were in place to allow the deal to complete. The deal was closed on February 16, 2024.

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 The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources ...

aspect camera (star tracker) and SIM (science instrument module) *

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

: seven science instruments ( COS, 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 designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

optical mirror system *

Kepler space telescope The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...

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 2024 mergers and acquisitions

History

Participating projects

See also

References

External links