Next-Gen Ground Systems Boost Space Race Efforts

From powering financial transactions to forecasting weather and enabling global communication, space technology underpins the modern world. Given this critical influence, the scope of global space operations has significantly expanded in recent years, with dozens of countries and numerous private entities venturing to the final frontier.

“It’s ironic to say this, but it’s getting crowded up there,” says Virginia “Ginny” Cevasco, a senior vice president at Booz Allen and leader in the company’s classified space business. “There are just so many more satellites and vehicles of all kinds, and much more debris along with that, that we have to navigate.”

Since claiming victory in the first space race, the U.S. has remained a top power in space exploration. But today’s proliferation of spacecraft—largely satellites, spurred by the popularity of SmallSats and satellite constellation systems—is causing an already remote environment to become even more challenging to manage. And while many space assets are launched with benign intent, geopolitical tensions with well-equipped adversaries have turned space into a contested environment.

“Space has to be for everybody who inhabits the planet, and we want everyone, ideally, to have the benefits we have from being in space,” explains Ginny. “The hard part used to be just getting the assets up there safely. Now, we have to think about how we are going to protect those assets.”

Military and civilian space agencies must harness the private sector's advances to keep their tactical edge in today’s space age and adhere to initiatives like the Defense Department’s recent Commercial Space Integration Strategy.

“Only about 20 years ago, government controlled space 100%. Today, it's less than 20%,” notes Karen Fields, who leads the NASA account at Booz Allen. “The commoditization of space is a reality now, and we have to make sure the government is keeping up with the commercial side.”

As a decades-long trusted government partner, Booz Allen combines its breadth of mission experience with commercial innovation to develop resilient, virtual, and automated space ground systems that allow agencies to maintain consistent space domain awareness, monitor and outpace adversaries, and advance human exploration. Starting with a strong data foundation, the company builds systems with scalable, open-architecture cloud frameworks that seamlessly integrate with existing technology for quick modernization.

“We have a lot of experience building things for the tactical edge and other domains and were able to transfer that over,” says Ginny. “It's allowed us to really pull the best of what we do in a larger sense and target it to our space needs.”

For example, when developing the cloud architecture for its ground systems, Booz Allen harvested architectural features it used to support the reinvention of Recreation.gov—turning the website into a modern, scalable, cloud-native platform to manage millions of reservations for national parks and landmarks. With the platform’s core capabilities, space systems can process data securely and simultaneously facilitate many operations and users at scale. 

“That project really gave us a jump on getting those systems into the cloud,” notes Ginny. 

Additionally, in the wake of near-constant, sophisticated cyberattacks directed at government entities, Michelle states that space-related ground systems could be a target soon. In a space conflict, adversaries will likely seek to launch information warfare by corrupting internal data communications or sending false information within ground systems in an attempt to veer missions off course.

Cyber and cloud resilience are top priorities for Booz Allen to maintain data integrity, ensure operations run effectively—no matter the circumstances—and bolster infrastructure against disruptions.

“We have to have resiliency at peace and at war if we are going to remain a true power,” Michelle says. “Managing at the data level and managing resiliency in your cloud infrastructure is crucial. With those elements in place, you have the trusted and secure data foundation needed to implement artificial intelligence, which to me enables horizontal enterprise integration.”

Most ground systems are strictly brick and mortar, often using outdated technologies vulnerable to attack. Seeing the limitations of this antiquated approach, Booz Allen develops ground systems that are virtualized and powered by intelligent capabilities that help the AI’s human counterparts oversee complex environments.

As the largest provider of AI to the federal government, Booz Allen is actively seeking new ways to deploy the technology in space. The company recently celebrated several successful interactions with a large language model (LLM) that was deployed to the International Space Station laboratory.

“We believe we are the first to put an LLM into space,” says Ginny. “That’s going to give people working on the space station the ability to find information and get guidance on maintenance activities without having to reach Mission Control. We’re all starting to get used to using AI assistance down here on Earth; it’s no different up there.”

Space is ultimately a shared domain, and sustaining its global benefits depends on collaboration and cooperation from everyone seeking to use it. Michelle highlights that part of their civil and defense customers’ work is establishing a coalition of allies from other governments and industry to ensure diplomacy and collective progress in space.

“For the last few years, leaders have been creating this sense of urgency geopolitically and in the U.S. that it's really important to keep the focus in space to maintain dominance,” she explains. “The first to market usually wins. The U.S. was first to market, but our nation needs to be first in coalition too, working with others in space so that development stays on a positive trajectory and doesn't end up hurting people on the ground.”

By equipping government with the systems necessary to navigate the constantly evolving space landscape, Booz Allen is helping shape a safe and productive future for space operations and mission goals.

“Booz Allen has helped multiple agencies, whether defense, intel, or the civil side; we're at the forefront of modernization; and we're bringing ideas and capabilities to different agencies and investing in—and furthering—the technology,” says Karen. “We're also developing the workforce that can bring these capabilities to the whole space community.”