This work investigates the use of integrated microwave photonics for aerospace systems, with a focus on three distinct but closely interrelated topic areas. The first topic area is integrated microwave photonics, examining device performance at the component level, as well as introducing the impacts which these device metrics will have to the larger system. The second topic area is system architecture design, exploring especially the tradeoffs between analog- and digital-domain photonic transport of microwave signals in the context of aerospace applications. The final topic area is the effects of space radiation on individual microwave photonic components, as well as impact which extends to the system architecture analysis and influences considerations specific to radiation-heavy environments. A brief literature review is provided for each of these topic areas, highlighting relevant background work providing a context in which this dissertation is to be situated. While device-level studies of integrated microwave photonic components and tradeoffs are abundant in the literature, there is little prior information available to inform system architecture design and tradeoffs, much less in the unique operating environment of space. This work therefore seeks to bridge these gaps, presenting a framework which can be referenced by system designers to enable the first stages of a system architecting process to be navigated with greater insight and improved efficiency.