Fort Collins-based defense contractor Numerica sold its space division this month so it could focus solely on air and missile defense.

Buyer Slingshot Aerospace, with offices in California, Colorado Springs and now Fort Collins, builds space simulation and products for space situational awareness and space traffic coordination. Terms of the deal were not released.

Numerica, which recently built a new facility in the Harmony Technology Park, has developed software that is now in multiple space operation centers, deployed a global telescope network to provide commercial satellite tracking service and developed the world’s first commercial daytime optical low-earth orbit to geosynchronous-orbit daytime and nighttime optical sensor network for satellite tracking, the company said in a news release announcing the sale.

Melanie Stricklan, co-founder and CEO of Slingshot, said in a press release the acquisition helps her company "drive the space economy toward sustainability by providing satellite and launch operators with the most robust and authoritative space situational awareness and space traffic coordination solutions available today."

By merging with Numerica, Slingshot triples the size of its team and gives it the ability to move forward "with this game-changing suite of products that enable a more sustainable and responsible approach to space operations today and in the future," Stricklan said.

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As part of the agreement, Slingshot gets an autonomous global network of proprietary sensors and software comprising more than 150 sensors including 30 telescopes across 20 locations around the globe with advanced data processing capabilities, a team of research scientists, software engineers and mathematicians working at Vandenberg Space Force Base as well as Fort Collins and Colorado Springs.

“We are proud to have developed such an effective global network of proprietary ground-based sensors and software for deep space surveillance and look forward to seeing its continued evolution with an established industry leader like Slingshot Aerospace,” Numerica President Jeff Poore said in the news release.

“This acquisition will help accelerate advancements in space flight safety and sustainability during a time of great need, but it will also allow Numerica to strategically focus resources on our growing air and missile defense business," he said.

In May 2021, Numerica bought a 33,000 square-foot industrial building at 4450 Denrose Court in east Fort Collins to expand development of its optical space surveillance sensors and short-range air defense radar systems.

At that time Numerica said it had 62 employees in Fort Collins and 74 throughout the state. It expected to ramp up its workforce as production scaled up in the new building. The company declined to release the number of employees after the sale. Employees of the aerospace division all became Slingshot employees, a company spokesperson said.

The company moved to its headquarters from Loveland to Fort Collins in 2014 and has its main headquarters at 5042 Technology Pkwy., within Harmony Technology Park. It also has a satellite office in Colorado Springs.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins company sells space division to focus on missile defense