Aerospace’s OTT: Bridging Innovation to Impact
The Aerospace Corporation’s Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) plays a crucial role in accelerating the widespread implementation of cutting-edge innovations. By fostering strategic partnerships with government and commercial sectors, the OTT ensures that novel concepts and capabilities developed by Aerospace reach their full potential and contribute to advancements in the space enterprise.
This focus on technology transfer is vital for enhancing U.S. leadership in space, according to Aerospace. The OTT, established within the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), has made significant strides in streamlining the transfer process. These efforts include:
- Launching new internal and external tools and processes.
- Implementing new approaches that align with customer priorities.
- Creating pathways for numerous potentially high-impact technologies.
“Effective technology transfer is vital to ensuring Aerospace’s innovation and commitment to technical excellence is making the biggest impact possible to support the nation’s most important needs,” said Deborah Salvaggio, associate principal director in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer.
Targeted Technologies and Strategic Framework
As Aerospace focuses on aligning innovation with national mission objectives, the OTT has implemented a “targeted tech” designation as a key element of its success framework. This designation identifies high-impact transfer opportunities based on criteria such as customer demand, Aerospace priorities, and potential value. These considerations start early in the product lifecycle.
“Using the targeted tech rubric enables us to focus resources on bringing technology transfer considerations into the discussion as early as possible in the product life cycle,” Salvaggio said. “Integrating technology transfer into the early stages of technology innovation and development increases our ability to support rapid transfer and deliver the most impact for Aerospace and our government partners.”
To broaden its reach, the OTT has improved the visibility of Aerospace’s patent portfolio and is expanding outreach to potential external partners.
Strategic Acceleration and High-Impact Technologies
The adoption of priority technologies, such as the small satellite platform DiskSat and the payload universal interface module Handle, illustrates the effectiveness of Aerospace’s approach.
The Handle module, designed to streamline payload integration, was successfully demonstrated in the Slingshot 1 mission. Collaboration with Aerospace’s program offices was essential for establishing the infrastructure and framework necessary for technology transfer, enabling a smooth handoff.
“Aerospace’s ability to develop the proof of concept is in the nation’s best interest, as is the subsequent technology transfer to industry after the concept is demonstrated,” said Patricia Lew, senior project leader in Space Domain Superiority at Aerospace. “When demonstrating a proof of concept, a designer’s focus is on the technological viability of new innovations, like Handle as an example. Manufacturability and sustainability aren’t forefront at this stage. However, industry is keen on bringing that economical scalability to the equation, and that is essential to lowering costs and operational barriers for sustainable government use. These are all win-wins for the nation’s space enterprise.”
In fiscal year 2024, the OTT identified five prioritized targeted technologies that demonstrate high customer demand, with more in the development pipeline.
“Aerospace recognized early the value of some of our key technology innovations like a smallsat payload interface standard or a new form factor for CubeSats,” Salvaggio said. “We are uniquely situated to take these advanced concepts to the next step of being commercially available to our customers.”
For more information on the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), visit https://aerospace.org/techtransfer
