Slingshot Aerospace appoints one of its early investors as CEO

Slingshot Aerospace has hired a new chief executive in Vince Monteparte, a 25-year technology veteran and board member who was an early investor in the space data software provider at its 2017 inception.

Slingshot said Thursday that Monteparte will lead the next phase of its strategy centered around space operations intelligence and autonomy, or SOIA, which the company touts as an approach for helping operators work with raw sensor and space-based data.

This includes sensor-backed operations, fusion of data across different sources and domains, predictive models, and mission rehearsal exercises that lean on artificial intelligence.

Monteparte succeeds Tim Solms, who previously led Slingshot as CEO for the past two years.

Slingshot’s senior leadership team includes co-founder and president David Godwin, as well as fellow co-founder and board of directors chairperson Melanie Stricklan. Godwin and Stricklan started Slingshot in 2017.

Stricklan returns to the company she helped start three years after her departure. She currently works as senior vice president of the special programs division at Vast, a role she started over the summer.

Space Force is a significant customer for Slingshot, whose portfolio there includes a $27 million contract booked in January to help the service branch integrate AI tech into training efforts. Slingshot also is working under a Small Business Innovation Research phase II contract awarded in 2025 to help Space Command use AI in the analysis of objects in space.

Monteparte is currently a venture partner at Sway Capital and co-founder of Miro Technologies, which was acquired by Boeing in 2012.