A spacecraft manufacturing company announced Tuesday it has secured $500 million in new investment funding, highlighting growing financial interest in the commercial space industry.
Impulse Space, which creates vehicles capable of transporting satellites and other cargo within orbit following launch, completed what the company calls a Series D funding round. According to someone with knowledge of the deal, this investment places the company’s worth at $4.26 billion.
The business was established by Tom Mueller, who served as the initial employee at SpaceX and worked as the propulsion engineer responsible for developing rocket engines that helped transform Elon Musk’s enterprise into the leading global launch service provider.
Venture capital firms 137 Ventures and Banner VC jointly led the investment round, pushing the total funding received by the Redondo Beach, California-based business beyond $1 billion, according to Impulse.
This fundraising demonstrates significant investor interest in companies developing infrastructure for the commercial space economy’s next stage, moving beyond traditional launch rockets.
With decreasing launch expenses and increasing satellite deployments, there’s growing demand for vehicles capable of moving spacecraft between different orbits, transporting payloads further into space, and maintaining satellites already positioned in orbit.
“Launch has pretty much been solved. The challenge now is getting everywhere else beyond low Earth orbit,” Mueller, who serves as CEO of Impulse Space, told Reuters.
The company creates orbital transfer vehicles and propulsion systems engineered to relocate satellites more rapidly once they’ve reached space.
According to Impulse, the company has completed three missions and obtained customer contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Their product lineup includes Mira, a maneuvering spacecraft currently operating in orbit, and Helios, a larger transfer vehicle scheduled for its inaugural flight in 2027.
“For Helios, commercial customers can launch on a Falcon 9 and take six, eight or 10 months to reach their final orbit. Our pitch is: ‘launch with Helios and we’ll get you there the same day,’” said President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Romo.
Investment excitement surrounding the space sector has increased following SpaceX’s filing last month for what could become the largest IPO in history. The filing detailed ambitious expansion plans covering Starlink satellite internet services, artificial intelligence infrastructure and reusable Starship rockets.
The anticipated SpaceX IPO has heightened investor attention toward a new generation of startups created by former SpaceX executives and engineers who are developing satellite, spacecraft and orbital logistics businesses.
Other investors participating in the Impulse funding round included Founders Fund, Lux Capital and Linse Capital, the company reported.
