The Monrovia Chamber of Commerce has had a busy last couple of weeks with both welcoming new businesses such as Sherwin-Williams and visiting longtime businesses, including the mixer it held at ITT Exelis, a contractor for JPL.ITT Exelis is a Monrovia-based business that employs hundreds of people, and houses the administrative services to support the Deep Space Network used by JPL and NASA.
The original ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) was created in 1920. Over the past few decades, the company has grown significantly and seen many changes, including the purchase of more than 350 companies during its conglomerate years in the 1960s and 1970s, according to its website.
Among the more recent changes occurred earlier this year, when ITT announced a plan to divide the company into three separate assets: one for water technology, another for defense, and the third as a stand alone, highly industrial company.
Last Thursday, ITT Exelis gave Mixer attendees a tour of the facility, which included a demonstration of a rover that is used to traverse Mars, a high powered telescope that was clear enough for us to see Jupiter (yes, this is the same telescope used for the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers), and a glimpse through the monitoring rooms where engineers observe the satellites that are located in places around the world.
To learn more about ITT Exelis, visit their website. They also have posts that inform people of available jobs.
