The Aerospace Corporation is a private, non-profit corporation headquartered in El Segundo, California that has operated a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) for the United States Air Force since 1960.
The purposes of the corporation are exclusively scientific: to engage in, assist and contribute to the support of scientific activities and projects for, and to perform and engage in research, development and advisory services to or for, the United States Government. As the FFRDC for national-security space, Aerospace works closely with organizations such as the United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to provide "objective technical analyses and assessments for space programs that serve the national interest."