What began at the dawn of the space age, has evolved into a long-standing legacy of integrity, technical expertise and value

In 1956, Edmund F. Ball, son of one of the original Ball brothers of Ball Corporation, partnered with physicists from the University of Colorado to create the aerospace segment, which would eventually become known as Ball Aerospace. The company began building pointing controls for military rockets and later won a contract to build NASA's first spacecraft, the Orbiting Solar Observatory satellites. 

Ball Aerospace, which was acquired by BAE Systems, Inc., becoming the Space & Mission Systems sector, has a long and distinguished track record as a proven partner and pioneering innovator. With trusted customer relationships among the Intelligence Community, U.S. Department of Defense and civilian space market, the team continues to support the delivery of a broad set of products and differentiating technologies to meet growing customer demands.
 
2024
Ball Aerospace, a subsidiary of Ball Corporation, was acquired by BAE Systems, Inc. as a new sector, Space & Mission Systems. 

2021
The James Webb Space Telescope, which provides humanity’s deepest views of the universe, launched. Our team built the advanced optical technology and lightweight mirror system.

2019
The Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) launched as the first spacecraft to test green propellant technology. Our team built the spacecraft bus and characterized the green fuel’s performance on-orbit. 

2017
The Ball-built NOAA-20 satellite launched to collect critical data for weather forecasting, storm tracking and climate monitoring. We also built the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) instrument.

2015
Our Ralph camera took the first high-resolution images of Pluto on NASA’s New Horizons mission after withstanding a journey of nearly 10 years across three billion miles.

2009
Kepler successfully launched aboard Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral. Our team built the planet-hunting spacecraft which has discovered thousands of planets orbiting distant stars. 

2005
Deep Impact became the first spacecraft to intersect a comet. We built the two-part spacecraft: the Impactor spacecraft and Flyby spacecraft; and three high resolution cameras for the mission.

1988
We installed the first AIRLINK® antenna system on a business aircraft to provide in-flight telephone, fax and data transmission.

1977
The Ball-built visual imaging subsystem cameras launched aboard NASA's Voyager I.

1962
A Delta rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying NASA’s first Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO-1), built by Ball Aerospace.

1956
Ball Aerospace was established, originally as the Ball Brothers Research Corporation.