NOAA awards key contract for space situational awareness system

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a multi-million dollar contract this week to Slingshot Aerospace, Inc. to provide the website and user experience for the Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS.TraCSS — pronounced “tracks” — is a three-phase effort being developed through NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce to provide situational awareness data and information services to civil and private sector space operators and to support space safety, sustainability and coordination.

“We are delighted to welcome Slingshot to the team to help us bring TraCSS to the entire world,” Richard DalBello, Director of NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, said in a statement. “Their visualization tools will make our technical data accessible via a modern interface reflecting the latest innovations in software and user experience design.”

NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said the agency expects to have the website — TraCSS.gov — “online and ready to sign up public users by late 2025.”

“This contract award represents the next major step forward in our effort to provide spaceflight safety services to global space operators,” Spinrad said.

The El Segundo, California-based company’s space traffic coordination software, Slingshot Beacon, is a key component of the award. In an interview with GovExec, Slingshot’s chief revenue and marketing officer Kelli Furrer said the software “gives everyone awareness of what is up in the sky,” and likened it to an air traffic control system for space.

She added the Slingshot Beacon software allows users, which include satellite operators, to communicate through a chat function — especially critical when satellites are passing close to each other. This bidirectional communication capability has become increasingly important as more countries launch more satellites in space, with over 10,000 satellites operational today and more than 10 times that number expected in orbit by 2030.

Slingshot will work closely with systems integrator Parsons Corporation, which will develop the software backbone and integrate commercial components for TraCSS. NOAA’s Office of Space Command took over space traffic coordination responsibilities from the Defense Department in 2018 after the signing of Space Policy Directive-3.

“Slingshot’s role in developing this groundbreaking space traffic coordination platform requires intentionality as well as close mission alignment with OSC,” said Tim Solms, CEO of Slingshot Aerospace. “NOAA’s TraCSS initiative offers the opportunity for enhanced space safety and sustainability, fostering growth across the commercial, civil, and academic space sectors for the foreseeable future.”