Technology advances, changes in the space environment, and fiscal pressures are spurring new interest in the evolution of operational National Security Space architectures. The evolution is often constrained by backward compatibility requirements and transition risks. In several recent development planning and architecture studies, The Aerospace Corporation incorporated transition risk considerations in the architecting and decision support process. The studies reviewed the role that hosted payloads can play in reducing architecture transition risks. Our experience in conceiving and developing the Commercially Hosted Infra Red Payload (CHIRP) has demonstrated that hosting new infrared sensors on commercial satellites can help retire numerous risks associated with fielding new technology in operational systems. This paper summarizes development planning examples in which hosted payloads were shown to facilitate the evolution of current operational architectures for overhead persistent infrared and space based environmental monitoring. The Aerospace Corporation teams employ an open-model decision support framework to address technical, programmatic, mission, and enterprise aspects of development planning.
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