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An Impulse employee works on assembling a Mira vehicle.
Impulse space
Los Angeles-based space startup Impulse, led by famed rocket scientist Tom Mueller, has raised $150 million in a new round led by venture capital firm Founders Fund.
Impulse is developing a product line of orbital transfer vehicles – colloquially known as “space tugs” – and is building two of them so far, the smaller Mira and the larger Helios.
While rockets put satellites and payloads into orbit, like a plane carrying passengers to a metropolitan area, space tugs transport them to specific destinations, like taxis taking those passengers home from the airport.
Mueller, SpaceX’s first employee who spent nearly two decades developing engines for CEO Elon Musk, told CNBC the funds would secure Impulse Space’s future. Mueller founded Impulse three years ago after leaving SpaceX and leads the company as CEO.
“This means that we are sufficiently funded through the development of Helios and the upgraded Mira and beyond the first flights of these two products,” Mueller said.
Tom Mueller delivering the commencement speech at the University of Idaho in 2018.
University of Idaho
Impulse carried out its first mission, called LEO Express-1, with a Mira vehicle carrying and deploying a small satellite. Launched in November, Impulse declared full mission success in July after a series of additional demonstrations, with Mueller saying it was “probably the most successful first orbital transfer vehicle in history.”
“That success has really contributed to that increase, as well as all the customer engagement we’re getting,” Mueller said.
The company has a backlog of orders from commercial and government customers – ranging from delivering standard satellites to building the propulsion system for a private space station to demonstrating the capabilities of its Helios vehicle in deep geosynchronous orbit for the US Space Force.
A wide range of venture capitalists joined the company’s $150 million funding round, including: Airbus Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, Lux Capital, RTX Ventures, Spring Tide, Tamarack Global, 137 Ventures, DCVC, Elysium, First Principles Group, Island Green, Overmatch and Trousdale Ventures. This new round brings Impulse’s total fundraising to date to $225 million, the company said.
A Mira vehicle in orbit during the LEO Express-1 mission launched in November 2023, with several pairs of its Saiph thrusters visible.
Impulse space
Impulse’s next mission, LEO Express-2, is expected to launch later this year. It then plans to launch an updated version of its Mira vehicle in late 2025, fly a demonstration mission with Helios by mid-2026, and launch its “GEO Rideshare” missions by 2027, according to the company.
Exploiting reusable rockets, Starship or not
According to Mueller, even though SpaceX has reduced the cost of mass launch to orbit, commercially available space delivery systems are lacking. And new launch capabilities are coming, with large reusable rockets being developed by Rocket LabBlue Origin, Relativity and others.
“There are a lot of costs and efficiencies to be gained… [with] a reliable solution for any customer looking to move objects through space,” said Mueller.
A Mira vehicle at the company’s headquarters in Redondo Beach.
Impulse space
While he said he launched Impulse “really based on what I thought Starship could do commercially,” Mueller noted that “now we find out that [SpaceX is] I probably won’t be flying commercially for maybe five years and there’s not a lot of information yet about what arrangements will be made. »
SpaceX continues to develop its monstrous Starship rocket system, with increasingly ambitious prototype test flights. The rocket is crucial to the company’s future, whether it’s deploying its own Starlink satellites or carrying out high-profile lunar missions for NASA.
“For now, [we’ll be] fly on Falcon 9 and medium launchers,” Mueller added.
Headquartered in Redondo Beach, Calif., Impulse currently has about 140 employees and plans to hire more than 200 next year as it increases production of Mira and Helios. The company does most of its engine design, manufacturing, assembly and even testing in its 60,000 square foot facility.
Mueller noted that the current Impulse facility allows the company to produce at least 10 of its Mira spacecraft per year before needing to expand.
“We feel good right now. Understood [fundraising] behind us, so it’s heads down and moving forward now,” Mueller said.
