Slingshot will demonstrate new optical telescope capabilities to the USSPACECOM Joint Task Force Space Defense (JTF-SD) Protect and Defend mission through the development and deployment of an all-orbit, daytime-capable, and cislunar-capable telescope system. The capability will test experimental sensor processing and emergent sensor types via real-time tracking data on satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). Additionally, Slingshot will perform a feasibility assessment for cislunar satellite tracking, i.e., the means to track satellites in angular proximity to the moon using ground-based-optical telescope systems. Slingshot intends to leverage its daytime-optical image processing heritage towards improving cislunar object detection in the presence of bright sky glow.
Score Rationale
AFWERX TACFI is a top-tier modern fast-track instrument, earning a full 5 on pathway speed. The award ceiling of ~$1.74M lands solidly in the mid-tier range with a vague transition mention (implicitly STRATFI-eligible), and the response deadline is unknown which prevents confident timeline scoring but TACFI norms are generally reasonable. Problem framing is moderately concrete — real end-user (JTF-SD), real mission (Protect and Defend), but the cislunar feasibility assessment adds scope ambiguity and success metrics are not explicitly stated; AI/ML fit scores mid-range because sensor fusion, image processing, and object detection in high-background optical imagery are genuinely AI-shaped tasks, but significant hardware integration and telescope deployment work dominates and AI is a meaningful but secondary component.