Ball Aerospace’s new owner BAE launches weather satellite

BROOMFIELD — BAE Systems PLC, which last month acquired Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. for $5.5 billion, successfully launched this week the MethaneSAT satellite, a Ball-developed piece of space technology that will gather greenhouse-gas emissions data.

The satellite mission, BAE’s first launch since folding Ball Aerospace into its new, Broomfield-based BAE Systems Inc. Space & Mission Systems business division, took flight on Monday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The Environmental Defense Fund commissioned the development of MethaneSAT and EDF-affiliated MethaneSAT LLC helped build the satellite. 

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“MethaneSAT’s primary instrument includes a BAE Systems-built spectrometer that will identify and quantify methane emissions by measuring the narrow part of the infrared spectrum where the gas absorbs light reflected off the Earth,” BAE said in a news release. “The satellite will monitor emissions from the oil and gas sector, which accounts for about 40% of all human-caused methane emissions, and it will be able to revisit the same sites daily in most instances.”