Has Grown To 3,000 Employees Across The United States

Since its founding in Boulder, Colorado, in 1956, Ball Aerospace has significantly increased its high-tech workforce, embarked on several infrastructure expansion projects and pioneered new technologies to meet the demands of customers today.

"From the dawn of the space age, Ball has been instrumental on some of the most groundbreaking missions in history, thanks to the creative and collaborative nature of our founder, Ed Ball, and our many talented employees – from concept and design through data delivery," said Rob Strain, president, Ball Aerospace. "We're proud to be part of Colorado's growing aerospace sector, the second-largest space economy in the U.S."

Ball Aerospace, a business of Ball Corporation, has more than 3,000 employees located in Colorado, the greater Washington, D.C. area, Ohio, New Mexico and Missouri, and has hired more than 700 new employees in the past two years. Committed to diversity and inclusion, Ball offers employees the opportunity and latitude to pursue work that is aligned with their interests and strengths, increasing both technical creativity and individual growth. Employees are also encouraged to be active in the communities we serve. In 2016, Ball employees volunteered more than 34,000 hours and, along with The Ball Foundation, donated more than $4 million to about 1,900 charitable organizations in North America.

Ball has implemented several infrastructure updates, growing its capabilities, capacity and manufacturing space. In 2014, Ball expanded its Fisher Manufacturing Complex in Boulder. This past summer, the business began installing a next-generation Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVAC), which will simulate the complex harsh environments of space, including radiation, and extremely high and low temperatures. This chamber is an important addition to existing environmental test facilities, including EMI/EMC, vibration and TVAC, improving testing and quality for multiple sizes of spacecraft, instruments and components for our nation's most critical scientific and national security systems.

In nearby Westminster, Colorado, a 145,000-square-foot addition is currently under construction. Initially built in the late 1980s, the Ball Aerospace Manufacturing Center underwent a 60,000-square-foot expansion in 2006. When fully completed in 2019, this latest addition will significantly enhance manufacturing, production and test capabilities,enabling Ball to continue to provide high-performance phased array antenna and electro-optical solutions for government and commercial customers.

From protecting our nation's warfighters to observing the most distant reaches of our universe, Ball's unique work across many disciplines has delivered groundbreaking technologies that have helped customers to perform beyond expectation. A snapshot of recent achievements includes: developing and manufacturing the entire integrated antenna suite for the F-35 Lightning II; designing and building Kepler/K2 Space Telescope, which has discovered more than 2,500 confirmed exoplanets; developing technologies that allow people to overcome physical limitations, such as the Semi-Autonomous Motorcar (SAM); building two of our nation's next-generation polar-orbiting operational weather satellites, NOAA-20 (formerly JPSS-1) and Suomi-NPP; designing and building the optical system for the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be the largest mirror ever flown in space; and providing several critical national security programs.

Today, Ball is leveraging its decades of experience and proven innovations by investing in new and exciting technologies, including integrated data and hardware solutions for transformational communications and persistent imaging.

Investing in all levels of its business enables Ball to implement scalability into its manufacturing systems and increase efficiencies to provide affordable, mission-level solutions to its customers, while offering more innovative and professional growth opportunities to its employees. Master research agreements with several universities across the U.S. allow Ball to collaborate with and leverage some of the nation's best and brightest research and talent, to develop critical technologies and support principal investigator-led science missions.

"We look forward to advancing our work on programs in national security, intelligence, space and Earth Science exploration for many decades to come, while remaining true to what makes us so successful: our people and our culture," said Strain.

Ball Aerospace pioneers discoveries that enable our customers to perform beyond expectation and protect what matters most.  We create innovative space solutions, enable more accurate weather forecasts, drive insightful observations of our planet, deliver actionable data and intelligence, and ensure those who defend our freedom go forward bravely and return home safely.

(Source: Ball Aerospace news release)

FMI: www.ball.com/aerospace