Ball Aerospace Wins Space Test Satellite Contract

BOULDER, Colo., April 3, 2006/Satnews Daily/ — The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center for the Space Test Program's Standard Interface Vehicle (STP-SIV) has selected Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. as its prime contractor.

Ball Aerospace said the goal of the STP-SIV program is to increase the flexibility and reduce the cost of small satellites, complementing similar efforts underway with small launch vehicles.

As contractor, Ball Aerospace, with teammates AeroAstro, Inc., and Broad Reach Engineering, will build a small spacecraft with a non-proprietary standardized payload-to-experiment interface. The first space vehicle contract is valued at $26M, with options for up to five additional spacecraft.

The Space Test Program, managed by the Space & Missile Center, Detachment 12, at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, has launched over 400 space technology experiments in the past 40 years.

Ball Aerospace began building pointing controls for military rockets in 1956, and later won a contract to build one of NASA's first spacecraft, the Orbiting Solar Observatory. Over the years, the company has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific 'firsts' and now acts as a technology innovator in important national missions.

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