As the space domain becomes increasingly congested and contested, The Aerospace Corporation must understand the dynamic environment and rapidly evolving globally competitive landscape to support government customers in outpacing the threat, and provide relevant information directed at strengthening capabilities to ensure national security. Aerospace’s Strategic and Global Awareness Directorate, more commonly known as Project West Wing (PWW), acts as the corporation’s tip of the spear in this regard, providing cutting-edge technical intelligence analysis and research across the space enterprise.

Founded in 1957 by the United States Air Force, PWW initially dedicated its focus toward understanding Soviet missiles as part of the Space Technology Laboratories. Members of that team went on to form The Aerospace Corporation in 1960. As the space enterprise evolved, so too did the mission of PWW, leveraging that heritage and institutional knowledge to adapt to support the needs of Aerospace’s government partners.

Throughout the years, PWW has kept its focus on staying at the forefront of understanding and articulating the threat environment, providing timely and relevant education and actionable insights to government customers and throughout Aerospace, facilitating informed decision-making and establishing connections to address and anticipate the hard problems that the space enterprise faces.

“For Aerospace and our customers, PWW provides the expertise to understand the threats associated with the space domain and how US systems might mitigate those threats. We want to make sure everyone has an appreciation of the capabilities that are already in orbit and how those might affect the programs that they support,” said Dr. Caolionn O’Connell, Principal Director of PWW. “We think through and anticipate – as we are developing and building new systems, new architectures, new constellations – what will be up there in five, 10, 15 years. We need to anticipate how those threats might evolve and make sure that whatever is being built ultimately can be agile enough to respond or withstand whatever space domain challenges may arise.”

Leveraging the Power of Knowledge

PWW creates working partnerships directly with customers at the highest levels within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC), collaborates with program offices to provide specialized technical intelligence reach-back support, and leverages Aerospace’s technical backplane for exquisite depth and breadth of expertise, as needed.

PWW’s expertise and work in gathering and analyzing space intelligence data provides a unique resource for Aerospace and the nation to obtain valuable context, knowledge and insights to a wide spectrum of global threats.

Shaping an Integrated Space Enterprise

As announced last September, Aerospace made significant changes to its organizational structure to strengthen the alignment of how the corporation can support government customers and the increasing focus on space warfighting, growing importance of rapid acquisitions and the need for greater unity of effort between the DoD and the IC. As the principal director of PWW, O’Connell has extensive experience working with government customers and a deep understanding of end-user needs.

“With the focus on integration and kill chains, understanding the threat is a critical component of ensuring mission success,” said O’Connell.

Prior to joining Aerospace, O’Connell held various roles at a number of federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), including the RAND Corporation.

Empowering Aerospace to Outpace the Threat

To ensure Aerospace is positioned for success and is equipped to navigate this dynamic era of space, PWW also provides numerous educational and informational resources for employees to better understand the threat environment. This knowledge and broader awareness is essential to enabling everyone at Aerospace to better support Enterprise Mission Success for the nation and customer. 

Across the space enterprise, customers and the broader space community rely on the deep knowledge and leadership Aerospace provides, and the PWW team continues to serve as a key enabler of that support.