# Get started
<a name="getting-started"></a>

Before you begin, you should familiarize yourself with the basic concepts in AWS Ground Station. For more information, see [How AWS Ground Station works](how-it-works.md).

## Sign up for an AWS account
<a name="sign-up-for-aws"></a>

To get started with AWS, you need an AWS account. For information about creating an AWS account, see [Getting started with an AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com//accounts/latest/reference/getting-started.html) in the *AWS Account Management Reference Guide*.

## Add AWS Ground Station permissions to your AWS account
<a name="add-permissions-to-account"></a>

 To use AWS Ground Station without requiring an administrative user, you need to create a new policy and attach it to your AWS account.

1.  Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the [IAM console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam). 

1.  Create a new policy. Use the following steps: 

   1.  In the navigation pane, choose **Policies** and then choose **Create Policy**. 

   1.  In the **JSON** tab, edit the JSON with one of the following values. Use the JSON that works best for your application. 
      +  For Ground Station administrative privileges, set **Action** to **groundstation:\*** as follows: 

------
#### [ JSON ]

****  

        ```
        {
          "Version":"2012-10-17",		 	 	 
          "Statement": [
            {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                "groundstation:*"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                "*"
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
        ```

------
      +  For Read-only privileges, set **Action** to **groundstation:Get\***, **groundstation:List\***, and **groundstation:Describe\*** as follows: 

------
#### [ JSON ]

****  

        ```
        {
          "Version":"2012-10-17",		 	 	 
          "Statement": [
            {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                "groundstation:Get*",
                "groundstation:List*",
                "groundstation:Describe*"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                "*"
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
        ```

------
      +  For additional security through multifactor authentication, set **Action** to **groundstation:\***, and **Condition/Bool** to **aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent:true** as follows: 

------
#### [ JSON ]

****  

        ```
        {
            "Version":"2012-10-17",		 	 	 
            "Statement": [
                {
                    "Effect": "Allow",
                    "Action": "groundstation:*",
                    "Resource": "*",
                    "Condition": {
                        "Bool": {
                            "aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent": true
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
        ```

------

1.  In the IAM console, attach the policy you created to the desired user. 

 For more information about IAM users and attaching policies, see the [IAM User Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/introduction.html).