Slingshot Aerospace Awarded First-of-Its-Kind, Joint Contract from U.S. Department of Defense & U.K.'s Ministry of Defence

AUSTIN, TX / EL SEGUNDO, CA—March 24, 2021, Slingshot Aerospace, Inc., a leader in situational awareness technology, announced that the company was selected as a winner of the inaugural International Space Pitch Day out of 100 registrants. As a result, Slingshot Aerospace was immediately offered a joint, first-of-its-kind contract from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Air Force and the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD), which includes the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), to deliver a demonstration of Slingshot Orbital ensemble catalog, an active data curation capability that uses machine learning to aggregate information from various sources to give users confidence in data.

The competition was open to innovators and entrepreneurs from around the globe and delivered through the United Kingdom’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), assisted by U.S.- based Starburst Accelerator. The pitch day was jointly funded by the United States’ Air Force, UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and the Royal Air Force.

Today, hundreds of new satellites and millions of pieces of debris are congesting Earth’s orbits and creating a high risk of collisions. Slingshot Orbital ensemble catalog combines Slingshot Aerospace’s active data curation with machine learning to provide space operators with the information they need to build and maintain data integrity as it relates to accurately identifying objects, tracking their locations, and anticipating paths of travel. This helps ensure space safety and sustainability through reliable and predictive analytics.

The ensemble catalog is built upon the company’s air traffic control system for space called Slingshot Orbital. The real-time space domain awareness solution aggregates information from commercial and government data sources for the more than 25,000 objects in space, and applies advanced analytics and machine learning to characterize space objects, detect threats, and enable confident decision making while identifying inconsistencies among sources.

“There is an urgent need for reliable, predictive analytics as space becomes more congested and contested,” said Melanie Stricklan, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Slingshot Aerospace. “The Slingshot Orbital ensemble catalog fulfills this need and will provide space operators with important information to maintain space superiority over adversaries. We look forward to working with Dstl to commercialize this critical technology.”

Slingshot Aerospace partnered with CGI to extend its Slingshot Orbital product to create an ensemble catalog. CGI’s expertise in confidence scoring, geospatial and sensor data capabilities, and intelligent automation will help maximize the use of Slingshot Aerospace’s operational space data.

“Space domain awareness depends on integrating myriad sensor data sources in time to support the mission. Critical to this integration is delivering trustworthy data and providing quality sensor information,” stated CGI Senior Vice-President, Kenyon Wells. “In concert with our partner, Slingshot Aerospace, CGI’s application of ‘Defendable AI’ to sensor data integration provides a pathway to future intelligent automation for detecting space domain awareness data anomalies.”

International Space Pitch Day is a joint initiative between the United Kingdom and United States. Its goal was to find, fund and fast-track technology from startups and small/medium sized enterprises to provide space domain advantages to military personnel and operations.

Participating companies pitched their innovations to military leaders from the United States, United Kingdom and NATO on November 17, 2020 at the Defence Space Conference. The inaugural International Space Pitch Day was the first time two nations anywhere in the world came together to award defense contracts via a pitch-style event.

Once the contract is complete, Dstl can consider full implementation of Slingshot Orbital ensemble catalog via a second contract. In less than three years, Slingshot Aerospace has earned millions of dollars in revenue from early customer contracts. The innovation of Slingshot Aerospace has helped the company cultivate a strong foundation of customers over the last three years, including NASA, United States Air Force, BAE Systems, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and more.

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About Slingshot Aerospace

Slingshot Aerospace, Inc. is empowering organizations with its decision intelligence technologies for space. The company enables teams to quickly navigate, analyze, and leverage data from different sources—such as satellites, ground-based sensors, and more—and applies advanced analytics and machine learning to provide clarity in complex environments. Launched in 2017 and based in Austin, TX, and Los Angeles, CA, Slingshot Aerospace seeks to help government and commercial customers to build a safer and more sustainable world. Visit slingshotaerospace.com and follow Slingshot Aerospace on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Dstl

Dstl - The science inside UK defence and security

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) delivers high-impact science and technology (S&T) for the UK's defence, security and prosperity. Dstl is an Executive Agency of the MOD with around 4,500 staff working across four sites; Porton Down, near Salisbury, Portsdown West, near Portsmouth, Fort Halstead, near Sevenoaks, and Alverstoke, near Gosport.

What we do:

• Research – original research and concepts, creating new capabilities for defence and security
• Requirements and Evaluation – Dstl S&T support to assess, evaluate and deliver current and next generation capabilities.
• Specialist Advice & Services – our knowledge and facilities are ready to meet priority needs.
• Operational Support – rapid and deployed S&T to meet the urgency of operations.

Dstl is a proven national asset, giving the UK clear advantage across science, technology, cyber and information.

Media contact

Stacy Morris
(310) 415-9188, Stacy.morris@futuristacommunications.com