When Booz Allen Hamilton was looking to expand its operations in Colorado, Aurora made sense because of its proximity to Buckley Air Force Base.

Booz Allen, a global management, information and technology firm, has increased its staff in Colorado by about 40% in the last two years because of its growing intelligence and space-related work. The 460th Space Wing and a defense support program using satellites as a part of North America’s early warning system are located at Buckley.

Booz Allen also works with the National Park Service and other clients at the Denver Federal Center, home to 28 federal agencies.

The company has about 600 employees along Colorado’s Front Range, with approximately 200 in the Denver area and 430 in Colorado Springs. Booz Allen officially opened the office in November.

“This office here is important to us because relative to the space world for the U.S. government there are many, many changes going on,” said Chris Bogdan, a Booz Allen senior vice president who is based in Colorado Springs and manages the company’s daily space-related business.

Bogdan, a retired three-star U.S. Air Force general, works closely with Steve DelBusso, a senior vice president is in charge of the Aurora office, the firm’s intelligence-related account and is responsible for a team that integrates the space work companywide. The company provides technology, analytics and intelligence.

“We don’t build the rockets, but we can build the underlying systems that control the data and control the equipment,” Bogdan said.

Booz Allen has more than $300 million worth of space business, DelBusso said. The accounts include NASA, the Department of Defense and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It’s particularly important here in Colorado with all of the activities of (U.S.) Space Force standing up,” DelBusso said of the coordinated approach to the space-related work.

Colorado’s profile as a stronghold for the aerospace and defense industries would be further elevated if U.S. Space Command, temporarily sited at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, is permanently located in Colorado. Four of the six bases in the running are in Colorado: Buckley, Peterson, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.

President Donald Trump launched Space Force in December as the first new military service in more than 70 years. The headquarters will be in the Pentagon. Trump, in his visit to Colorado Springs on Thursday, said he would make a decision on Space Command’s location by the end of the year.

The prospect of the location of the Space Command in Colorado adds another layer to Aurora’s draw for businesses like Booz Allen and others involved with space and defense, said Andrea Tilliss, marketing manager for the Aurora Economic Development Council.

“We think that it would be a perfect fit for Buckley,” Tilliss said.

However, even without the designation, Buckley is a magnet for companies, Tilliss said. Also of interest is the Colorado Air and Space Port in Watkins. The former Front Range Airport was licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration as a space port in 2018, clearing the way for it to eventually serve spacecraft that will take off and land like regular jets.

Aerospace and defense giant Raytheon Co. has 2,500 employees at its five-building campus in Aurora.

Colorado’s aerospace industry is second only to California’s. There are about 180 aerospace companies in the state and more than 500 businesses that provide space-related products and services, according to a report by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

“Colorado aerospace is a dynamic industry sector and is continuing to grow,” said Jay Lindell, the aerospace and defense industry champion in the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

Aerospace is heavily dependent on federal policy and budgets and the Department of Defense and NASA space programs in Colorado have received significant funding, Lindell said in an email.

“Of course, U.S. Space Command should be based in Colorado, the epicenter of national security space,” Lindell said. “Basing the Command in Colorado would be a catalyst for business, technology development, innovation and great paying jobs.”

Having the federal center in the area is also attractive to Booz Allen and similar companies. Will Healy, a vice president and a leader of the company’s digital solutions team, oversees the clients in the federal center.

One of Healy’s major projects has been the overhaul of Rec.gov, a website where people can make reservations at campgrounds, national parks and other sites across all public lands and waters.

“The government had purchased a kind of off-the-shelf software, which it tried to revitalize. But it wasn’t growing,” Healy said. “When Booz Allen came in, we worked with the government to design a system, a program that supported the mission of getting people out to federal lands.”

The system is designed to be an open platform to which other applications and tools can be added later, Healy said.

That’s the approach Booz Allen takes with its work across all its government and commercial accounts, said DelBusso. The company provides technology, analytics and management he said, whether it’s related to national parks or national defense.