The Aerospace Corporation has provided independent technical and scientific research, development, and advisory services to national security space (NSS) programs since 1960. We operate a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) for the United States Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). We also apply more than 55 years of space systems experience to projects in the national interest for civil agencies like NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, commercial companies, universities, and international organizations.
The Aerospace Corporation’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) technical capabilities, facilities, and modeling and simulation tools were originally developed to support the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center and National Reconnaissance Office in their national security space mission.
Successfully executing space missions remains a high-risk, unforgiving venture and the impact of these missions only continues to grow in criticality, scope, expense, and visibility.
The Aerospace Corporation’s technical staff encompasses world-recognized experts in their disciplines. Our talented workforce remains at the forefront of technology and science, applying the latest technological advances and innovation to benefit our customers.
The business of space is unforgiving—one mistake can cause major mission and/or financial setbacks for our customers. The Aerospace Corporation’s staff works diligently with customers to implement mandated and custom-designed processes to ensure mission success.
The Aerospace Corporation’s customers pursue complex projects that can take many years to complete, due both to technical challenges as well as the government’s rigorous acquisition process. Aerospace supports customers in all phases of the acquisition cycle.
The Aerospace Corporation has been contributing to the success of space systems for more than 50 years. Utilizing our end-to-end systems engineering expertise, we focus on the government’s needs to develop the best space-related capabilities within cost and schedule constraints.
The Aerospace Corporation functions as the nation’s independent testing, assessment, and research center for national security space systems, specializing in advanced military space systems. Along with supporting the effective and timely development and operation of national security systems through rigorous scientific research and application of advanced technology, our technical teams also focus on developing and integrating new technologies to enhance existing space systems.
Research is focused on fields pertaining to space and space-related systems, including electrical power systems for rockets and spacecraft, microelectronics, optoelectronics and microelectromechanical systems, laser technologies, active optical remote-sensing systems, optical communications, fiber-optic sensor applications, and applications of atomic physics.
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Successfully executing space missions remains a high-risk, unforgiving venture, and the impact of these missions only continues to grow in criticality, scope, expense, and visibility. Such complex undertakings so central to the nation’s security require an approach that will ensure their success.
Mission assurance is the disciplined application of proven scientific, engineering, quality, and program management principles toward the goal of achieving mission success. It follows a general systems engineering framework and uses risk management and independent assessment as cornerstones throughout the program lifecycle.
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Space systems infrastructure is a complex system-of-systems that involves space, ground, and user components. The intricate connections between these three major components—with the added complication that we cannot modify elements once deployed in space—create myriad challenges for our customers. The Aerospace Corporation uses the expertise and experience of our technical staff to find innovative solutions to these challenges in space systems infrastructures.
Aerospace research focuses on fields pertaining to space and space-related systems. Our scientists and engineers collect comprehensive data, which is then integrated, analyzed, compared, and contrasted with other data and made available to our customers. They then apply this information to define needs and conceptualize architectures for our nation’s future space systems.
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The Aerospace Corporation’s fundamental research and development specializes in advanced military and civilian space systems. These space systems utilize aspects of virtually every physical science and must operate in the harshest and most unforgiving of environments. To ensure mission success, Aerospace recognizes the necessity of conducting research and development in a single location, which allows for complementary knowledge-sharing among our scientists and engineers from a wide variety disciplines, as well as ease of interdepartmental support when necessary.
Our Physical Science Laboratories (PSL) provide a secure, self-contained organization with resources powerful enough to allow complete self-reliance. PSL operates more than 80 specialized laboratories in support of Aerospace’s fundamental research and development, gathered into three focus areas—the Electronics and Photonics Laboratory (EPL), the Space Materials Laboratory (SML), and the Space Science Applications Laboratory (SSAL).
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For virtually the entire history of the nation’s civilian and military space programs, The Aerospace Corporation has worked to address and solve program anomalies, characterize the space environment, and develop methods to operate within it. Repurposing our technical tools and skills to create unique solutions to challenges in the private sector is a key asset for the corporation and a huge benefit for our customers.
Aerospace leverages intellectual property via licensing agreements and other mechanisms, creating access to a repository of technology and other tools that has resulted from decades of research, experience, and lessons learned. Aerospace holds more than 550 patents, and our scientists and engineers are continually adding new technologies and inventions to the collection.
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The Early Career Development Network Class of 2014
The Aerospace Corporation has a longstanding dedication to education. From outreach programs with local schools to the yearly Robert H. Herndon Science Fair competitions held on our campuses, Aerospace has prioritized bringing our scientific expertise and knowledge to the next generation of Aerospace pioneers.
Our early career employees are encouraged to join a specialized mentoring program created to expand corporate awareness, provide networking opportunities, and encourage insight about developing a satisfying career.
The Aerospace Institute offers classes for both employees and customer to provide additional knowledge related to our work and our technical workshops offer educational forums for the exchange of ideas among industry experts.
