The power systems department of Eagle-Picher Technologies LLC (Colorado Springs, CO) celebrated the recent successful touchdown of NASA's Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft on the surface of the asteroid Eros, more than 196 million miles from Earth. A nickel-cadmium battery built by Eagle-Picher's power systems department powers the NEAR spacecraft. The battery was built and delivered to Johns Hopkins University's applied physics laboratory in 1995. The lab then built the NEAR spacecraft, which was launched in February of 1996.
Rolan Farmer, Vice President and General Manager of the Colorado Springs facility stated, “Eagle-Picher has a tradition of building batteries that perform above and beyond design requirements".
