NASA mission a success, with Joplin company playing key role

A NASA spacecraft has successfully retrieved samples of rock and dust from the surface of an asteroid located 200 million miles from Earth.

The spacecraft could not have left the ground or exit Earth's orbit without Joplin-made batteries via EaglePicher.

“It’s pretty exciting, especially on a mission like this one, where you’re doing something that’s a little bit unique," said Ron Nowlin, senior vice president of aerospace systems for EaglePicher, on working with NASA.

The company's batteries have been used on myriad NASA space missions, dating back to the 1958 Explorer 1 satellite launch.

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