Click a node — kill it · rejoin it
Space · Ground · Edge

Distributed mission autonomy. Resilient by design.

Dynamic mission orchestration.

1Aardvark designs and orchestrates distributed missions — connecting space assets, data, applications, and operators into one autonomous mission network, with command and control that keeps operating when communications cannot be guaranteed.

Break it down
Our approach

Mission first. Full stack software. Distributed architectures by design.

How we work, in three layers. Every engagement starts with the mission, runs through one engineering team, and delivers distributed mission autonomy built to survive contact.

LAYER 01

Mission understanding.

We start where the mission starts — with the warfighters and operators who depend on it, and the autonomous systems that increasingly execute it. Our team has spent careers inside DoD, IC, and Space programs, and it shapes everything: we engineer for the environment the mission actually runs in, not the one the diagram assumes — human in the loop, on the loop, or fully autonomous.

Satellites, ground stations, sensors, and operators increasingly depend on one another — yet many mission systems still assume reliable connectivity and centralized processing. In contested environments, those assumptions fail:

  • Data becomes isolated on the platform that produced it.
  • Operators reconcile fragmented, conflicting pictures by hand.
  • Remote nodes cannot act without reaching back to the center.
  • The mission inherits the fragility of its most vulnerable link.
The disciplines we bring
Mission Processing & C2
AI / ML
Software Development
Mission Integration
LAYER 02

Full mission integration.

One team engineers the entire stack — board-level embedded software, containerized services, AI and analytics, and the mission interface itself. Concept to operations, without handoffs.

The full engineering stack: embedded hardware and sensors, containerized services and code, AI and analytics, and an operator mission dashboard
Embedded, edge & real-timeMicroservices & containersAI & analyticsOperator interface

Embedded & Edge Software

Board-level, real-time engineering — RTOS to bare metal — with direct hardware interfaces, deployed to constrained edge devices and validated hardware-in-the-loop on embedded benches.

Rapid Prototyping & MVP Delivery

Compressed timelines from concept to live demonstration — containerized, microservice-based software working in weeks, shaped by operator feedback.

DevSecOps & Secure Engineering

Secure pipelines, NIST 800-171 alignment, and MOSA-compliant architectures built in from the first commit — extending through machine learning and AI: model pipelines, data integrity, and explainable outputs.

Systems Engineering & Integration

Full-spectrum systems engineering — requirements to fielding — integrating with the platforms and data customers already own.

The operator-facing layer

Mission visualization, grounded in the full stack.

Interfaces aren’t a specialty on the side — they’re the last mile of full-stack delivery. Because we build everything beneath the screen, from embedded software to the distributed data layer, we know what a distributed mission needs to show and how to render it in real time: orbital views, interactive scheduling and mission planning, and track displays — aligned to the USSF Astro style guide on performant thin-client architectures.

MISSION VIEW · CONSTELLATION OPS REPRESENTATIVE · SYNTHETIC DATA --:--:--Z
Mission interface view: Earth with an orbiting satellite constellation shell
TASK QUEUE
PASS-1147ACTIVE
COLLECT-0393ACTIVE
XLINK-2210SCHEDULED
DOWNLINK-085SCHEDULED
MAINT-4402COMPLETE
NODE TELEMETRY
NODE-041SYNC 100%
NODE-118SYNC 100%
NODE-076SYNC 97%
NODE-203SYNC 100%
TRACKS 214ACTIVE LINKS 36MESH NOMINAL

Operationally aligned

Interfaces follow the USSF Astro style guide, so operators get a familiar experience from day one.

Single coherent picture

Live data feeds, scheduling, resource management, and domain awareness unified in one interface — not another isolated tool.

Built to deploy anywhere

Cloud-native, micro-services, MOSA-aligned — experience deploying across government and commercial platforms.

LAYER 03

Distributed mission autonomy.

Autonomy is the destination: mission applications that keep coordinating — and keep executing command and control (C2) — when links degrade and nodes drop. Operators set intent; the network carries it out. We build these applications as composable modules on a shared distributed backbone — signal processing, space operations, networking, analytics, security, and C2. Compose the bundle each mission needs; adopt one module or several — government, partner, and third-party applications integrate through documented interfaces, no ecosystem replacement required.

Mission Processing
Sensor data to decision-quality information
Autonomous Operations
Intent executed without waiting on the link
Resilient Data Orchestration
One synchronized picture that survives node loss
Software Security
Zero-trust engineering, hardened by design
Command & Control
Operator intent carried across the network
Analytics
Trends, health, and mission insight at every tier
Application modules → mission bundles
Why 1Aardvark

Built differently, from the first line of code.

Distributed by design

Local autonomy, disrupted comms, and resynchronization are founding assumptions — not retrofits.

Edge to enterprise

From cloud architectures to embedded boards and FlatSat benches — the full path to the mission edge.

Explainable by default

Assessments carry evidence and plain-language rationale. Operators stay on the loop — and the same rule governs our AI/ML: models surface confidence, evidence, and provenance, so machine assessments can be interrogated, not just trusted.

Unclassified to operational

Capabilities mature on open data with a deliberate path to operational environments.

Hardware-in-the-loop

Validated on embedded test benches — demonstrations you can put hands on, not slideware.

Leadership

Built by experts.

1Aardvark is built by engineers, program leaders, and veterans who have spent their careers delivering mission-critical capabilities for the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and the U.S. Space enterprise. Meet the team setting the strategy.

Ryan Kenward, President and Founder

Ryan Kenward

President & Founder

Air Force veteran turned founder. 17+ years developing and delivering capabilities for DoD, IC, and Space.

Miles Hodgson, Vice President, Operations

Miles Hodgson

Vice President, Operations

Physicist, program manager, and operator. Scaled an enterprise Space office from $2M to $15M.

Christian Butterfield, Vice President, Technology

Christian Butterfield

Vice President, Technology

Chief Architect turned VP. 17 years across distributed systems, AI, and missile defense.

The 1Aardvark team standing together in front of the aardvark logo at the office Interested in joining the team? We’re hiring Full-Stack Software Engineers Send your resume to info@1aardvark.us.
Partner with us

Build a more resilient mission architecture.

Mission owners, program offices, primes, and technology providers — talk to us about integration, demonstrations, and partnership opportunities.

Start the conversation

571.295.5915