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In December 2019, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft was poised to dock with the International Space Station. The mission marked a critical milestone in NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which seeks to restore American capability to launch astronauts from U.S. soil after the retirement of the Space Shuttle.
But as the world watched, the mission went awry. A software error sent the uncrewed capsule into the wrong orbit, forcing controllers to cut the mission short. Boeing would later reveal that the mishap cost a staggering $600 million.
As former SpaceX engineers who have dedicated our careers to pushing the boundaries of what's possible, we were struck by a painful realization: after countless hours poured into perfecting the spacecraft, one of the most expensive failures in aerospace history came down not to exotic hardware, but to a software glitch — a glitch that could have been prevented with the right tools.
The Starliner incident is just one high-profile example of a pervasive problem. From the ispace lunar lander crash in 2023 to the tragic East Palestine train derailment, the news cycle is filled with stories of complex machine failures that could have been averted with better software. As engineers building some of the most advanced machines in the world, we knew there was a better way.
Pioneering a New Paradigm for Complex Machines
We are living through an era of unprecedented technological advancement. Across domains spanning space exploration, autonomous transportation, clean energy, and beyond, engineers are building machines of awe-inspiring complexity and sophistication. These machines — rockets, satellites, robots, and more — are forging a path to a brighter future for humanity.
As the complexity of machines grows, so too does the risk of catastrophic errors if we don't revolutionize the software that powers them.
But there's a fundamental problem: the tools used to develop, test, and operate these cutting-edge machines haven't kept pace. Engineers are still relying on software designed for the machines of the past — software that's woefully inadequate for the complexity of the systems they're building.
The result? Costly delays, preventable failures, and a cap on the pace of innovation. As the complexity of machines grows, so too does the risk of catastrophic errors if we don't revolutionize the software that powers them.
The Bottleneck of Legacy Tools
Why hasn't the software kept up? Building observability and data management tools capable of handling complex hardware is an enormous challenge — one that companies have traditionally had to tackle in-house, pulling their best engineers away from core product development.
Relying on these legacy tools isn't just inefficient — it's a massive drain on innovation.
The result is a patchwork of bespoke tools, each designed to solve a specific problem for a specific machine. These systems are brittle, demanding constant maintenance. When a company tries to scale or adapt, they often break, forcing engineers back to square one.
Relying on these legacy tools isn't just inefficient — it's a massive drain on innovation. Engineers spend countless hours manually reviewing data, debugging failures, and rebuilding broken tooling — hours that could be spent pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
Read more about key trends and challenges in Sift's Aerospace Observability Report.
A World Transformed by Machine Innovation
At Sift, we envision a future where the only limit on machine innovation is the creativity and ambition of the engineers building them. Imagine a world powered by limitless clean fusion energy, where autonomous vehicles and hyperloops have erased distance, where humanity is a spacefaring civilization exploring the cosmos. The seeds of that future are being planted today by pioneering hardware teams — but only if they have the software to bring their visions to life.
But Sift isn't just a tool — it's a paradigm shift
That's the future we're unlocking with Sift. Born from our own experience building reusable rockets and human-rated spacecraft at SpaceX, Sift is the first observability platform purpose-built for complex hardware. By providing engineers with the tools to ingest, analyze, and act on their machine data in real-time, Sift is accelerating the pace of innovation and making previously impossible breakthroughs a reality.
The Power of Sift: Observability Reimagined
At its core, Sift is about empowering engineers with actionable data. Our platform ingests the high-velocity, high-cardinality data streams generated by complex hardware, transforming them into clear, contextual insights. With Sift, engineers can monitor the heartbeat of their machines, proactively identify and resolve anomalies, and make data-driven decisions quickly.
But Sift isn't just a tool — it's a paradigm shift in how complex machines are developed and operated. By providing a unified platform for data monitoring, storage, visualization, and review, Sift is breaking down data silos, streamlining workflows, and fostering collaboration across hardware and software teams. With Sift, teams are able to surface and resolve mission-critical anomalies proactively.
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The Opportunity Ahead
We founded Sift to accelerate the pace of progress. Having seen firsthand how transformative the right data tools can be for complex engineering challenges, we knew there was an enormous opportunity to abstract away the hardest parts of data management and put those capabilities in the hands of every hardware team.
That's why we're relentlessly focused on improving and expanding our platform, abstracting away the complexity of data management so hardware teams can focus on their most ambitious goals. With every new feature and capability, we're accelerating the development of the revolutionary machines that will shape our world.
But our aspirations extend beyond just building better software. At Sift, we envision a future where the pace of progress is limited only by the scope of human imagination, not the tools at our disposal. A future where engineers are empowered to not just build the next iteration, but to leap into uncharted territory. A future where the most pressing challenges we face — from climate change to disease to the great existential questions — are met with paradigm-shattering advancements.
At Sift, we envision a future where the pace of progress is limited only by the scope of human imagination, not the tools at our disposal.
At Sift, we're not content to merely imagine a better future — we're committed to building it. We know that the breakthroughs that will define the coming century — interplanetary exploration, limitless clean energy, intelligent machines that transform how we live and work — will be unlocked by engineers equipped with extraordinary tools.
In this future, Sift is the foundation upon which pioneers build. It's the launchpad for moonshot ideas and the backbone of world-changing breakthroughs. And as we continue to push our software forward, we're not just improving bits and bytes — we're accelerating humanity's journey to a brighter tomorrow.
