To preserve and enhance a strong space technology base and provide expert assistance in the development and acquisition of space systems for naval missions, the activities of the Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST) extend from basic and applied research through advanced development in all areas of Navy space program interest. These activities include developing spacecraft, systems using these spacecraft, and ground command and control stations.

Principal functions of NCST include understanding and clarifying requirements, recognizing and prosecuting promising research and development, analyzing and testing systems to quantify their capabilities, developing operational concepts that exploit new technical capabilities, performing system engineering to allocate design requirements to subsystems, and performing engineering development and initial operation to test and evaluate selected spacecraft subsystems and systems.

NCST is a focal point and integrator for NRL divisions whose technologies are used in space systems. NCST also provides systems engineering and technical direction assistance to system acquisition managers of major space systems. In this role, technology transfer is a major goal that motivates a continuous search for new technologies and capabilities and the development of prototypes that demonstrate the integration of such technologies.