Xage Security on Wednesday said it has received a $17 million contract from the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command to provide a cybersecurity platform to protect the service’s ground and space-based systems and to ensure the integrity of data exchanged from the source or network edge to the consumer.

Xage, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., has 90 employees. The company’s Xage Fabric mesh platform helps defend operational and information technology, and the cloud.

For the Space Force, the Xage Fabric platform will provide zero trust access management and data security to cyber harden current terrestrial-based systems such as ground stations and modems, zero trust capabilities to ensure secure interactions between commercial and Defense Department assets, and zero trust secure data exchange.

Zero trust cybersecurity principles are a priority for the government and DoD and assumes that systems and networks have already been compromised, highlighting the need for cyber protections throughout networks.

“For complex distributed environments, of which space is a demanding example, we’re answering the pressing need for local continuous operation, integrity of data, and identity protections for a mix of legacy and modern systems,” Geoffrey Mattson, Xage’s CEO, said in a statement.