SAN FRANCISCO – With $7.5 million within the bank from a recent investment round, Sift, an El Segundo, California, startup founded by former SpaceX software engineers, is concentrated on growth.
Specifically, “growing the team and growing our customer base,” Sift CEO Karthik Gollapudi told
Sift was founded in 2022 by Gollapudi, former Dragon flight software lead, and Austin Spiegel, former Starlink Constellation Tools team lead, to develop a proprietary telemetry stack to enhance the best way machine data is recorded, visualized and interpreted. Potential customers include space firms and other businesses constructing complex machines.
In the longer term, Sift also desires to help customers “automate away quite a lot of tasks,” Gollapudi said. Particularly for patrons with large satellite constellations, “we’re trying to offer people the tools to assist one operator manage a complete constellation,” he added.
Validating Software
Spacecraft are inclined to have complex software running on complex hardware.
“A part of the challenge is validating that the software is working accurately before deploying it,” said Spiegel, Sift chief technology officer.
At SpaceX, software changes are executed in a simulated environment before being moved to hardware-in-the-loop testbeds.
“At each stage, whether it’s simulated or a hardware-in-the-loop test or a vehicle-in-the-loop test, you’re collecting telemetry and reviewing the info so as to proceed to the following stage,” Spiegel said.
The Origin Story
Gollapudi began considering the necessity for improved software tools after Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner did not dock with the International Space Station in 2019. A joint review by NASA and Boeing really useful improvements in the best way Boeing handled testing and simulation, software updates and knowledge capture.
Over the following few years, Gollapudi and Spiegel noted additional examples of accidents or problems attributable to software or process errors just like the software glitch that prevented a lander from Japan’s ispace from touching down on the moon in April.
To analyze whether these problems were widespread, they spoke with people at 17 firms.
“That just increased our conviction that someone needed to construct this,” Gollapudi said.
Sift hired its first worker early this 12 months. The corporate currently has a staff of 12.