TRW Awarded $77.8 Million Contract To Build
Advanced Communications Technology Demonstration Satellite

CONTACT: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach
         Sally Koris, 310/812-4721



REDONDO BEACH, Calif., July 10, 1998 -- TRW Inc. has been awarded a $77.8
million contract by the National Reconnaissance Office to design, build and
operate the Geosynchronous Lightweight Technology Experiment (GeoLITE)
satellite program.

    GeoLITE is an advanced technology demonstration satellite with a laser
communications experiment and an operational UHF communications mission. The
GeoLITE program also employs streamlined acquisition and design-to-cost
methodologies to complete the satellite development, integration and launch
in early 2001.

    TRW has total system integration responsibility for GeoLITE. Teammates
include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory and
Hughes Space and Communications Co.

    "This award recognizes TRW's strengths in building high performance,
high reliability civil, military and commercial satellite communications
systems," said Ed Nowacki, TRW Defense Systems Division vice president and
general manager. "It also draws on TRW's extensive system integration
capabilities."

    The GeoLITE satellite will weigh approximately 4,000 pounds and be
launched on a Boeing Delta II launch vehicle. The satellite is based on a
modular bus design with multi-mission capabilities that has produced
programs such as the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-Earth Probe, the Earth
Observing System Common Spacecraft, and the Republic of China's ROCSAT-1
spacecraft.

    GeoLITE extends TRW's ongoing efforts in satellite communications
systems. TRW is building six Low Data Rate payloads for the Department of
Defense's Milstar communications satellites and is developing a prototype of
the key digital processing system for the next generation satellite
communications system under the Advanced Extremely High Frequency
Engineering Model program.

    The company has also built seven NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
Systems (TDRSS) satellites, eight Navy UHF Fleet Satellite Communications
satellites, 16 Defense Satellite Communication System (DSCS II) satellites
and eight INTELSAT III satellites.

    TRW provides advanced technology products and services for the
automotive, space and defense, and information technology markets worldwide.
Its 1997 sales totaled nearly $12 billion (including the recent BDM
acquisition).