If it seems that the threat environment is changing faster than ever before, that’s because it is. With a combination of speed, vision, and innovation, Aerospace is helping its government customers adopt a more resilient posture—one that does not simply react to emerging threats, but actively predicts and negates them.

Bold CubeSat missions and concepts such as the Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration and the Aerospace Rogue Alpha/Beta CubeSats are opening new possibilities in responsive and reconfigurable space architectures. Proactive initiatives to build consensus in space traffic management and debris mitigation will help ensure unrestricted space access despite the proliferation of commercial space ventures. Unheralded efforts in space cyber will add an extra layer of protection to vital warfighter assets.

Leveraging Commercial Innovation

Speed is critical, in terms of testing new technologies, fielding new hardware, and structuring program acquisitions. Aerospace is adapting its renowned mission assurance approach to better balance the competing demands for agility and risk reduction across the full range of mission classes, including review and certification of new and reusable rockets such as the Vulcan, Falcon 9, and New Glenn. Strategic partnerships are essential to creating a comprehensive and interconnected space enterprise, and Aerospace is uniquely positioned to connect forward-thinking government program managers with successful innovators in the commercial sector. Looking beyond space, Aerospace has also been applying its technical savvy to help shore up the nation’s nuclear deterrent and missile defense capabilities.

Aerospace has an extensive history in complex space systems—but the corporation’s true legacy has always been in anticipating new threats and opportunities, fostering positive change, advancing the technical state of the art, and devising innovative and effective solutions to the nation’s most pressing engineering challenges. By focusing on what’s most important, Aerospace proudly demonstrates its value to the nation every day.

This article was featured in the Aerospace 2018 Annual Report.