Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: NASA

Worried about safe and stable spaceflight, free of satellite collisions in orbit?

Slingshot Aerospace, Inc. announced today a free version of the group’s Slingshot Beacon that provides urgent collision alerts; coordinates satellite maneuvers; and seamlessly communicates, especially during high-risk moments.

“Ensuring the safety of current and future satellites in orbit is paramount to maintaining space as a safe operating environment,” said Melanie Stricklan, do-founder and CEO of Slingshot Aerospace. “This is why we are offering Slingshot Beacon for free so that all space operators around the world can coordinate, communicate and deconflict spaceflight risk.”

Clutter in the cosmos.
Credit: Used with permission: Melrae Pictures/Space Junk 3D

Analyze risk

According to the group, Slingshot Beacon capabilities are designed in collaboration with commercial space operators that represent more than 70% of satellites in low Earth orbit to help:

• Visualize the current and future state of satellites in a customizable dashboard
• Analyze risk using more accurate models to and cut through the noise of irrelevant data
• Enable coordination based on the same data with seamless chat and file sharing, and
• Guide decision stages for maneuvers to eliminate uncertainty

Potential collisions

There are more than 9,800 satellites in orbit today according to Slingshot’s space object database, Seradata SpaceTrak, with more than 115,000 planned to be in space by 2030.

Orbital debris hit.
Credit: NASA

Slingshot’s data indicates that 30% of alerts for potential collisions are with other active satellites. “This means space operators need to avoid more than just debris when maneuvering in space, and underscores the need for active coordination amongst the global space community,” said the firm in a press statement.

Debris clouds

“Accidental collisions can produce fast moving debris clouds that can spread and damage additional satellites with a cascading effect rendering havoc on spaceflight operations and limiting the use of space in the future,” the statement adds.

“Previously, owner-operators would resolve collision alerts by communicating via email and phone, wasting valuable time cross-referencing positional data to ensure they were looking at the same information,” notes the press statement.

The intent of the Slingshot Beacon is to transform how operators work together, save time, reduce uncertainty, while promoting space safety.

For more information go to: https://slingshotaerospace.com/