Project West Wing was established in August 1957 and became a part of The Aerospace Corporation's work when the company was founded in 1960. The project was an effort to better understand the emerging Soviet ballistic missile threat to the United States. A cadre of engineers and scientists from U.S. ballistic missile programs formed a highly classified effort to apply U.S. expertise to the analysis of technical intelligence being collected on Soviet ballistic missiles. While the fundamental role of intelligence analysis and threat modeling has changed little, the ballistic missile threat has evolved significantly during the last 50 years. As an integral and recognized part of the intelligence community, Project West Wing continues to provide technical intelligence analysis and research for national security space systems. The efforts of these missile threat analysts have been twice recognized with the Intelligence Community Seal medallion, awarded in 1986 and 2000.