Leveraging Digital Engineering for Space Guardians and Space Explorers

This paper analyzes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the United States Space Force approaches to digital engineering implementation along with an investigation of the possibilities for a more coordinated approach between the two. Five inquiry-based evaluation criteria have been developed for application to four different approaches that might be embraced by the two organizations. The reality is that there is too much engineering data, which is changing quickly and distributed across many organizations, for individuals (engineers and operators) to sustainably manage the space systems using legacy engineering approaches. An intent here is to review current and evolving engineering approaches for key U.S. spacefaring organizations to inform policies in the national interest.