Its purpose is to create and maintain an environment where scientific research and education programs can flourish in an integrated fashion.

The flight operations branch manages the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft's visible camera instrument and provides spectacular images of Saturn and its moons and rings to the public.

SSI has also produced several traveling exhibits for science museums, including Electric Space, Mars Quest, and Alien Earths.

SSI provides management support for research scientists and principal investigators, which help them to submit proposals to major public funding agencies such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci), Department of Energy (DOE), and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Principal investigators are supported by SSI though proposal budget preparation, proposal submission, and project reporting tools, and have competitive negotiated overhead rates.

[21] SSI is managed by a board of 12 directors for Aerospace, Academic Research, Small Business Consultant, Astronomy, Science and Technology, Engineering, Civil Space, Martin, Planetarium, Innovation, Legal and Policy,[3] and 4 acting directors for Research, National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL), Information Systems and Technology (IST), and Business Operations.