WASHINGTON — Slingshot Aerospace, a space tracking and data analytics company, named longtime tech executive Tim Solms as its new chief executive officer, the company announced Feb. 7.
The company’s former CEO and co-founder Melanie Stricklan resigned from Slingshot in August 2023 for personal reasons, a spokesperson told SpaceNews. Slingshot’s co-founder David Godwin had been serving as interim chief executive until Solms’ appointment.
“Slingshot has the opportunity to be the global leader in providing unique and highly relevant space data and analytics to help customers maximize their missions,” Solms said in a statement.
Solms previously worked at Microsoft, Dell, VMware, and most recently at Dun & Bradstreet, a provider of business decision-making data and analytics.
At Microsoft and VMware Federal, Solms managed the companies’ defense and military business sectors.
Slingshot in recent years expanded through acquisitions, and won several U.S. Space Force contracts. Most recently it was selected by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce to provide data on objects in low Earth orbit for a new project aimed at creating a civilian space traffic coordination and management system.
Founded in 2017, Slingshot is based in El Segundo, California; and Austin, Texas. The company operates a global network of ground-based telescopes to track space objects, and provides space traffic control software used by satellite operators to coordinate satellite maneuvers and communicate with other operators to avert collisions.
Sandra Erwin writes about military space programs, policy, technology and the industry that supports this sector. She has covered the military, the Pentagon, Congress and the defense industry for nearly two decades as editor of NDIA’s National Defense…
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