Slingshot Aerospace Demonstrates Advanced Capability in Tracking Hard-to-Detect Satellite

Slingshot Aerospace has shared an update. The company highlighted its role in tracking Mozhayets-6 (COSMOS 2596, NORAD 65589), an extremely dim satellite in medium Earth orbit that had been effectively “lost” for weeks and was absent from public space domain awareness (SDA) catalogs. According to Vice President of Space Surveillance and Systems Jeff Shaddix, speaking on Federal News Network’s Space Hour podcast, Slingshot’s Global Sensor Network located and identified the object despite it being roughly 10 magnitudes dimmer—about 10,000 times fainter—than the limit of unaided human vision. The satellite still lacks published orbital state data in the U.S. public catalog, underscoring gaps in existing public tracking systems.

For investors, this update underscores Slingshot Aerospace’s technical capabilities in high-precision space domain awareness, particularly in detecting and tracking challenging objects in MEO. Demonstrated success in locating one of the dimmest objects ever tracked in this orbit may strengthen the company’s competitive position in commercial and government SDA markets, where demand is rising due to increasing space traffic and security concerns. This type of performance could support future contract wins with defense, intelligence, and commercial satellite operators, potentially improving revenue visibility and reinforcing Slingshot’s positioning as a critical data and services provider in the evolving space infrastructure and security ecosystem.