To maintain and strengthen domain supremacy for the nation, The Aerospace Corporation (Aerospace) actively supports our government partners to identify collaborative strategies and tools to bolster resiliency and responsiveness. Moonlighter is a cyber test platform developed in partnership with Space Systems Command (SSC) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). This 3U CubeSat will provide the national security space community with the ability to test and learn in realtime in orbit.

Moonlighter is the world’s first and only hacking sandbox in space, designed and launched to advance the understanding of cybersecurity for space systems. It will serve a critical role in exercising defensive cyber operations (DCO); developing cyber tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs); and verifying end-to-end cyber threat assessment and prevention across the space enterprise. Aerospace engineers have built both the vehicle and ground segments, with a launch scheduled for June 2023. On-orbit operations will begin August 2023.