Ball Aerospace Submits Solar Electric Propulsion Concept to NASA

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. BLL has submitted its mission concept study to NASA for demonstrating solar electric propulsion (SEP) technologies in space. Ball Aerospace was one of five companies awarded up to $600,000 by NASA in September 2011, to formulate a mission concept to demonstrate the solar electric propulsion technologies, capabilities, and infrastructure required for sustainable and affordable human presence in space. NASA will use the studies to plan and implement a future flight demonstration mission to test and validate those science technologies and capabilities. "Ball Aerospace recognizes the mission enabling aspect of solar electric propulsion and our customer needs for SEP solutions," said Cary Ludtke, vice president of Ball's Civil and Operational Space business unit. "We believe we're the right-sized company with the right capabilities to take this space technology to the next level."