ASX-listed software firm touts link to NASA Artemis moon mission

It's not often an Australian IT provider has a chance to talk up its connection to a NASA Moon mission - even if that connection is due to an acquisition. 

ASX-listed cybersecurity and networking monitoring software company FirstWave is touting use of its software to monitor NASA's Artemis mission, which was counting down to launch at the time of writing.

The uncrewed Artemis I mission is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today and aims "to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon”. NASA plans to “use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.” 

FirstWave, which has its head office in North Sydney, announced the extension of an agreement with NASA to provide software for the Artemis mission.

FirstWave inherited the software deal with its $26 million acquisition of independent vendor Opmantek in November. Opmantek provides enterprise-grade network management, automation and IT audit software for mostly managed services providers, and signed the contract with NASA in July 2021. 

FirstWave said it integrated its CyberCision platform with Opmantek’s flagship Network Management Information System (NMIS) as part of the acquisition. 

LIVE: The countdown to launch is on. Get the latest weather and status update ahead of the scheduled Aug. 29 liftoff of #Artemis I. https://t.co/SKQJm51t2r

— NASA (@NASA) August 28, 2022

“While the exact nature of how NASA is using FirstWave’s software is secret, it was selected to handle events in real-time in a mission-critical setting," the company stated. "One of the key features of FirstWave’s solution is the software’s automated resolution of events which can be applied in any environment." 

FirstWave listed three software modules NASA will use:

• NMIS, the core of FirstWave’s network management, monitoring and auditing software
• opEvents, to process the "diagnostics of events and leverage intelligent automation to remediate issues”
• opHA for “high availability, automated redundancy, with primary-poller functions and geographic distribution of the management system to enable optimal functionality”

FirstWave customers also include Telstra and Macquarie Cloud Services.