Technology  February 24, 2022

Ball finishes design review for NASA’s SPHEREx mission, will build telescope

BROOMFIELD — Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., the aerospace arm of Westminster-based metal-packaging manufacturer Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL), has completed its design review for NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission, which will produce four complete all-sky maps during its two-year mission to study the nature of physics that drove cosmic inflation in the early universe.

Now the company will build the mission’s spacecraft and telescope, which is currently scheduled for launch no earlier than June 2024 and no later than April 2025.

We are excited to move forward on developing the tools that will help NASA and the scientific community gain a better understanding of the universe’s formation,” Ball civil space engineering vice president Makenzie Lystrup said in a prepared statement.

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