Securing the final frontier.

The new Space Race is a sprint for data and control. The U.S. and the People’s Republic of China are competing to establish and secure resilient Command and Control (C2) systems — the critical digital infrastructure that will determine future combat superiority. To address this challenge, Booz Allen developed the Space Compute Gateway (SCG), a technology designed to move data processing and tasking directly to in-orbit hardware. 

This fundamental transformation shifts agencies away from vulnerable, centralized networks by “taking the ground out of ground systems,” as Booz Allen’s Vice President of National Security and Space Markets, Dave Keppel, explains. “SCG was the next logical step after establishing our baseline for the Virtual Space Ground System (VSGS) because it’s focused on how much processing power can be effectively moved to the orbital edge.” 

Scale and resiliency: Why traditional grounds systems fail 

Pushing data processing and tasking out to the orbital edge is largely driven by two critical limitations found in today’s centralized, traditional ground-based systems: scale and resiliency.

Traditionally, a single ground station and radar dish were built to communicate with one or two satellites overhead. Now, in order to achieve the Trump Administration’s goal of establishing a Golden Dome for America, satellite programs must connect to hundreds of different space-bound assets and constellations. 

“We can’t build 1,000 ground stations for 1,000 different satellites. We have to start thinking about proliferated constellations, how they work together and what we can do to push that decision-making out to the edge in order to reduce latency,” said Keppel.

This decentralized, on-orbit processing capability will be a decisive factor in securing the Western Hemisphere. By minimizing the high latency involved in sending data from a satellite down to a ground system for processing and then back up, SCG helps teams make faster, more informed decisions in highly contested environments. For instance, SCG can be used to connect various space assets to form a mesh network, offering protection against a diverse range of threat vectors. 

“We can use SCG to connect to f space-based assets that are smart enough to react, and do what needs to be done without relying on ground-based commands,” Keppel said. “SCG enables the training of models and AI on the ground, but its real power lies in being able to implement these models and move data and mission management to the edge.” 

Built on cloud standards: Resiliency through managed services 

Unlike traditional systems, SCG eschews on-prem solutions for the power of the cloud.  

“We architected SCG to utilize the power of the cloud within a managed services model. This approach minimizes configuration drift and potential failure points, allowing agencies to rapidly launch programs with the resiliency and failover capacity required for the contested space domain,” explained Keppel.

SCG’s architectural design also includes principals rooted in flexible, open standards frameworks, so that as technology evolves, so do agencies’ ability to defend against emerging threats. And as agencies look toward the skies , securing the Western Hemisphere starts here — by moving decision making out to the orbital edge. 

“Space Compute Gateway is the next step,” said Keppel. “We took the ‘ground out of the ground’ with VSGS. Now we’re taking terra firma out of terrestrial decision-making.” 

See how Booz Allen can empower your space mission.