In November 2020, the Defence and Security
Accelerator (DASA) hosted the world’s first International Space Pitch
Day (ISPD) – a joint UK and US initiative to find and
fast-track innovations that enhance space domain capabilities.
The competition culminated in ten tech start-ups securing
contracts each worth up to £53,000, after pitching exciting space
technologies directly to UK, US and NATO military leaders.
To keep pace with evolving threats, a grand coalition of Dstl,
DASA, Royal Air Force, UK Strategic Command, the US Air Force, US
Space Force, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
turned to the commercial sector to connect world-class space
innovation to military end-users at pace.
ISPD marked a series of incredible firsts, such as the first time
same-day contracts have been awarded by the UK Ministry of
Defence, and the first time two international allies have jointly
held a “pitching” style event to award defence contracts.
Four months later, on 30-31 March 2021, we saw the results of
that funding during two-days of technology demonstrations,
witnessing ideas emerge from concept to reality in an incredible
display of innovation.
The technologies on display during the demo day offered an actual
glimpse into how UK and US militaries will cooperate to ensure
challenges in the space domain can be overcome.
Is this the exciting future of space defence?
The space domain is ever developing, with challenges such as the
intent of space actors, the ability to accurately monitor space
debris, the threat of space weather and the ability to safeguard
satellites to consider.
The event showed a fresh way of working to fast-track innovation
and cutting-edge technology to the front line quicker than ever
before.
Cognitive Space, a US company that demoed multi-level space asset
security through partitioned blockchain said;
ISPD has helped enable aerospace focused tech startups like us
(Cognitive Space) to collaborate and grow while supplying DASA
with innovative technologies not currently available in the
industry.
Melanie Stricklan, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer,
Slingshot Aerospace said;
The Slingshot team would like to thank DASA for a great
experience throughout the ISPD event and pitch process.
The Slingshot Orbital ensemble catalog provides a foundation
for reliable, predictive analytics 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.
And precursor SPC, who showcased a space weather impact tool
said;
The DASA platform is the catalyst for the future of Space
Weather now casting and forecasting, precursor’s 4D Space
Weather Operational Impact Tool.
The technologies demonstrated at the event were::
Visualisation and analysis
- 114 AI Innovation LLP (India)
- RiskAware Ltd (United Kingdom)
- Rocket Communications (United States)
- Swim.ai, Inc. (United States)
- Slingshot Aerospace, Inc. (United States)
- Clutch Space Systems Limited (United Kingdom)
Satellite spectrum monitoring
- Clearbox Systems Pty Ltd (Australia)
Multi-Level Security through Partitioned Blockchain
- Cognitive Space, Inc. (United States)
Space Weather
- precursor SPC (United States)
- Spire Global UK (United Kingdom)
Note to editors: What is the International Space Pitch Day?
International Space Pitch Day is a joint UK-US initiative that
aims to find, fund and fast-track innovation and technology that
gives advantage to military personnel and operations in the space
domain.
The competition was open to innovators and entrepreneurs from all
over the world delivered through the UK Defence and Security
Accelerator (DASA), assisted by Starburst Accelerator.
It is specifically designed to bolster tech start-ups and small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and harness the power of
their ingenuity and innovation.
The endeavour is jointly funded by the UK’s Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Royal Air Force and the US Air
Force.
A grand coalition of Dstl, DASA, Royal Air Force, UK Strategic
Command, the US Air Force, US Space Force, and the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been assembled to find, fund, and
fast-track the best ideas from start-up innovators to the front
line.
The format is the first of its kind in an international
collaboration between two international allies.
