Why We Acquired Numerica Space And Seradata: A New Approach To Space Sustainability

As a space sustainability company, it is our mission to create a safer, more connected world. That mission drives every choice we make at Slingshot, including the decision to acquire Numerica Space and Seradata. 

The Complexity

While many may not be aware of it, our modern way of life is highly dependent upon space. Satellites are the critical backbone that enables our weather forecasts, navigation, communication systems, electrical power grids, and global financial networks. However, due to the growing complexity of the orbital environment, the threat to this space-based infrastructure has never been greater!

Conquering the Complexity Holistically  

Today, satellite operators have to expend considerable resources as well as use several different pieces of software and services, often building their own custom solutions just to safely operate a handful of satellites in orbit. This is expensive, siloed, time consuming, and unscalable.

At Slingshot, we believe we have a great responsibility to improve knowledge of the space operating domain and mitigate risks operators face. We are acting on it by creating an industry-first framework that improves orbital operations for everyone. To do this, we think of the operating domain holistically - tracking the physical satellites and debris from the lowest of Earth’s orbits to the highest all the while ensuring the non-physical (space weather and radio frequency interference) risks are also known and mitigated. Until now, there was no company capable of tracking satellites in all orbits from LEO to GEO with software capable of combining rich contextual sources, processing, prioritizing, and turning this comprehensive data into simple, interactive, timely information. 

Slingshot Aerospace is constantly looking for new ways to innovate and productionalize clarity for our customers, so when the opportunity to acquire and integrate two of our data partners, Numerica’s Space Domain Awareness Division and Seradata, we jumped at the chance! 

Numerica’s powerful global sensor network and Seradata’s comprehensive database, detailing every launch and satellite system since spaceflight began, are game-changers. By layering these offerings within our intelligent decision making and coordination software, Slingshot Beacon, along with the simulation capabilities of Slingshot Laboratory and our underlying Digital Space Twin™, we are positioning ourselves to meet the needs of operators better than ever, in one modular, scalable platform - agnostic to orbit and agnostic of the operational risk profile. This has clear value for customers across spacecraft and launch operations, system manufacturers, insurers, and future space-related product developers.

Mission and Team

When most people think about M&A activity they often think about complementary revenue streams, product lines, and skill sets. While we did certainly see those accelerants and positive alignment, we also focused on what truly makes these acquisitions accretive; their people and culture. 

Space is one of the most difficult environments imaginable - every operational decision is expensive and high risk. Solving the growing problems in orbit requires a distinct and new multi-disciplinary approach. The teams at both organizations are the best in the world at what they do. What is equally impressive is that, much like Slingshot, their company cultures were built on inclusion, integrity, respect, trust, and teamwork. And even more so, every single person from these acquisitions that have now joined Slingshot, possesses a clear dedication to something greater than themselves - one team laser focused on our mission - space sustainability. It is this unique blend of category leading capability combined with category leading character that we carry forward together as Slingshooters for all of our customers and so that humanity can continue to use space for generations to come. 

In Posterum, Ad Astra!

Coordination, collaboration, and advanced analytics to drive a holistic understanding of what's going on at any moment in our Earth's orbits is necessary to move this market forward. Adding these world class teams and technologies to Slingshot marks a major breakthrough towards that clairvoyance, not just for our company, but for our customers, the space industry, and ultimately, the future of space sustainability. In the weeks to come, as we further integrate Numerica Space and Seradata into Slingshot, we can’t wait to share with our customers and partners our extended capabilities, delivering the world’s most comprehensive and scalable combination of space situational awareness products that remove uncertainty, reduce risk, and preserve critical orbital assets that are vital to our way of life.