Accelerating Innovation to Meet the Nation’s Needs

October 24, 2024

In today’s rapidly evolving space environment, it is crucial to anticipate concepts and capabilities the nation needs to solve the hard problems of the future. To stay ahead of the curve, The Aerospace Corporation has launched Solution Accelerator, a game-changing office that streamlines rapid, mission-ready solutions for government customers through collaboration across defense, civil and commercial space, propelling innovation forward.

Graphic of satellites above Earth exchanging information — Solution Accelerator emphasizes rapid innovation to address the nation's need to maintain leadership in space.

“The purpose of Solution Accelerator is to seize opportunities at the intersection of technological innovation and mission need,” said Tanya Pemberton, Executive Vice President of Aerospace. “It will be important to transition solutions to deliver the maximum impact and value for the nation’s space enterprise. Aerospace’s expertise, experience and ability to connect across diverse mission areas makes us uniquely positioned to lead from the front and support our partners in getting ahead of strategic hard problems.”

Aerospace’s Solution Accelerator is dedicated to facilitating the transition from cutting-edge technical research and prototyping to advanced capabilities that will meet the mission needs of today and shape the space systems and architectures of tomorrow. This bold initiative ensures high-priority solutions are delivered to government customers with urgency and impact.

Innovation With Agility

Established in July 2024, Solution Accelerator is Aerospace’s response to the growing need for bold, proactive solution developments to address the critical challenges of an increasingly contested space domain. Led by Brian Cameron, Executive Director of Solution Accelerator, the initiative focuses across six key areas to enhance agility, speed and resilience:

Proactive Problem Solving: Identifying and tackling high-priority issues before they escalate.
Speed and Impact: Committing to efficiency and ensuring substantial national-level impact.
Risk-Taking Breakthroughs: Encouraging calculated risks to pioneer unconventional solutions.
Independent and Agile Operations: Streamlining decision-making through autonomous funding.
Fostering Strategic Partnerships: Bringing together government, commercial, and academic partners to drive innovation.
Workforce of the Future: Supporting continuous workforce development in a rapidly changing landscape.

Two women having a discussion in a lab. — Solution Accelerator operates under six focus areas to ensure solutions are delivered quickly and have significant impact across the space domain.

These focused efforts will enable Solution Accelerator to drive measurable and significant impact across the full mission lifecycle for Aerospace’s government customers, driving integration and delivering the building blocks to advance end-to-end capabilities.

Approaches to Delivering Rapid Solutions

Harnessing Aerospace’s unparalleled depth and breadth of technical expertise, Solution Accelerator channels these innovation efforts by focusing on a two-pronged approach through Grand Challenges and Advanced Concepts.

Grand Challenges take into consideration the most pressing issues to national security space and identifies specific actionable paths and strategic partnerships that can lead to advantageous solutions. In the face of global challenges, such as the Great Power Competition and Dynamic Space Operations’ demand for advancements, the ability to rapidly transition advanced technologies to strengthen more agile and resilient space systems is paramount.

Through Advanced Concepts, Solution Accelerator nurtures groundbreaking ideas and matures them into reality by aligning closely with customer mission needs and forging a shared vision for the future. Whether it’s developing next-generation small satellites, enhancing GEOINT capabilities, or refining agile acquisition strategies, the office accelerates prototyping, streamlines acquisition, and delivers capabilities that bridge the gap between innovation and implementation.

By concentrating on both Grand Challenges and Advanced Concepts, the initiative enhances the speed and impact of Aerospace’s innovation efforts across the space industry.

A1 Atrium with artistic blurring effects. — Aerospace is continuing to prioritize innovative solutions, solving the industry's hardest problems.

Solution Accelerator will play a pivotal role, fostering collaboration and connections across national security and commercial space to drive game-changing capabilities with speed. By prioritizing agility, broad impact and rapid delivery of innovative solutions, Solution Accelerator demonstrates how Aerospace is capable of leading from the front to solve hard problems.

“Solution Accelerator is built on the principles of interdisciplinary collaboration, calculated risk-taking, and mission focus,” Cameron said. “With these priorities, Solution Accelerator is poised to deliver independent, innovative solutions with speed and national impact.”