Ball Corporation (BLL) Powers on JPSS-1 Weather Satellite - Analyst Blog
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., a unit of Ball Corporation BLL, has powered the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) satellite. This marks a significant milestone for on-time delivery to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with a planned early 2017 launch.
After being powered on, the satellite performed within specifications. The smooth powering on of JPSS-1 will help to understand how it will perform on orbit. Ball Corporation expects the powering on to be successful.
JPSS-1 is the first operational version of the next generation satellites to be managed by NOAA with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as the program’s procurement agency. The satellite bus was designed and built by Ball Corporation in accordance with its contract with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
JPSS-1 will provide essential data for civil and military weather observation and long-standing environmental records that are currently provided by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite.
NOAA had earlier announced that all five instruments that will fly on the JPSS-1 satellite are in the environmental testing phase, including the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) being built by Ball Corporation. The company will also integrate all instruments, conduct satellite-level testing and provide launch support.
Ball Corporation had earlier integrated four out of the five complex instruments in the next polar-orbiting weather satellite. The satellite will be set for environmental testing by early 2016 with on-time delivery scheduled for late 2016.
Ball Corporation’s Aerospace & Technologies segment develops spacecraft, sensors and instruments, radio frequency systems and other advanced technologies for the civil, commercial and national security aerospace markets.
The segment recently entered into a partnership with Arizona State University (ASU) to develop the Thermal Emission Imaging System through the E-THEMIS instrument for a NASA mission to study Jupiter's moon, Europa. Ball Aerospace will provide the engineering model and flight electronics and manage design and implementation of the system for radiation hardening and mitigation.
However, the segment’s sales declined 2.7% year over year in the first quarter of 2015. Ball Corporation anticipates that the segment will continue to pursue several large programs that are expected to be awarded in the coming months.
On Jun 19, Ball Aerospace promoted Steve Smith to the position of vice president and general manager of its Systems Engineering Solutions (SES) business unit. Steve will be responsible for all aspects of SES, nationwide operations and contract performance.
On Jun 10, Ball Aerospace announced that The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument is slated for Critical Design Review this month following an earlier milestone that included Preliminary Design Review (PDR). TEMPO will allow Ball Corporation to make air quality measurements at revolutionary temporal and spatial scales.
Broomfield, CO-based Ball Corporation is the largest manufacturer of beverage cans in North America. It also supplies aerospace as well as other technologies and services primarily to the U.S. government.
Ball Corporation carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Some better-ranked stocks in the same sector include AGCO Corporation AGCO, Astec Industries, Inc. ASTE and Mobile Mini, Inc. MINI. All of these companies hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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