In 1960, Congress spurred the formation of the non-profit Aerospace Corporation to provide systems engineering support to the U.S. Air Force as systems engineers on all subsequent ICBM development efforts but TRW never produced any missile hardware because of the conflict of interest. TRW also led development of the Titan missile, which was later adapted to fly the Gemini missions.
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It flew its full range in 1958 and was then adapted to fly the Mercury astronauts into orbit. Starting with the initial design by Convair, the multi-corporate team launched Atlas in 1957. In 1953, the company was recruited to lead the development of the United States' first ICBM. TRW veterans were instrumental in the founding of corporations like SpaceX. Its automotive businesses were sold off by Northrop Grumman as TRW Automotive, which is now part of ZF Friedrichshafen. It spawned a variety of corporations, including Pacific Semiconductors, The Aerospace Corporation, Bunker-Ramo and Experian. The company was founded in 1901 and lasted for just over a century until being acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002. The company was called Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., after the 1958 merger of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation and Thompson Products. It was #57 on the 1986 Fortune 500 list, and had 122,258 employees. TRW built many spacecraft, including Pioneer 1, Pioneer 10, and several space-based observatories. It was a pioneer in multiple fields including electronic components, integrated circuits, computers, software and systems engineering. TRW Inc., was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace, automotive, and credit reporting.
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