BOULDER - The WISE spacecraft built by Boulder-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. for NASA successfully launched this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on board a Boeing Delta II rocket.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite will survey the sky using infrared light to create a catalog of hundreds of millions of objects. The 10-month mission will measure more than 100,000 asteroids in the solar system and identify hundreds of stars in the solar neighborhood that have not yet been seen - including perhaps those closet to the sun.

The data will create a map for future infrared missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to launch in 2014, as well as NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes.

Ball Aerospace is a subsidiary of Broomfield-based Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL), a supplier of metal and plastic packaging for beverage, food and household products customers.