Impulse Space Aims for November SpaceX launch, Fueled by $45 Million Series A

Impulse Space just closed a $45 million Series A round that it will use to accelerate numerous space projects. The Redondo Beach, California-based company, which focuses on near-future in-space transportation services, announced the oversubscribed funding round in late July. The fundraising round was led by RTX Ventures and is the second major one for Impulse Space in the past year, after a seed round of $30 million in 2022.

“The focus is not only our first vehicle that will be going [to] space in this November, but also to develop a larger vehicle called Helios … and get it in space in the 2026 timeframe,” Barry Matsumori, chief operating officer at Impulse, told SpaceRef.

The vehicle, Mira, a part of the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) Express service by Impulse, will be launched for the first time in November on SpaceX Falcon 9’s Transporter-9 mission is. The mission is designed to test “last mile” transportation for small satellites into various orbits.

“The real purpose of that mission is to show the agility of the Mira space vehicle,” Matsumori said, explaining that the company hopes to show that Mira has enough energy for orbital plane changes in a highly elliptical orbit between low Earth orbit and high Earth orbit.

If needed, for future missions the company can also provide up to two 330-lb (150 kg) re-entry capsules at once, a service that is in response to numerous calls in the community lately to reduce space debris. Two more LEO Express missions are expected in 2024, with bookings still available on the Impulse website.

While few details about Helios have been released publicly, it is in general a kick stage designed to send satellites directly to geostationary equatorial orbit. Generally, when satellites launch to such a high orbit from Earth, they need to go to a transfer orbit first and then maneuver from there. While such a path saves on fuel, it does take more time.

Helios aims to eliminate that transfer orbit option and proceed directly to the desired orbit — a lucrative location as allocated spots are few, and satellites in that position have orbits that exactly match the orbit of the Earth. That perch allows the satellites to look at one side of the Earth consistently, making the orbit ideal for applications such as defense or weather monitoring.

As is common among startup companies, Impulse is both focused on generating short-term revenue wins while also focusing on longer-term projects. LEO Express and Helios are two examples, and the company has also received money through contracts announced in recent months.

In June, space habitation technology developer Vast announced that Impulse would provide the propulsion system for the Haven-1 Space Station that may launch as soon as August 2025, also on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. And in May, in-space logistics services provider Orbit Fab selected Impulse Space for a Space Force satellite refueling mission in geostationary orbit, using Mira, in 2025 or so.

Impulse is also aiming for Mars, in partnership with Relativity Space. The two companies together aim to deliver the first commercial payload to the surface of the Red Planet. The mission calls for Relativity’s reusable Terran-R rocket (currently expected to debut in 2026) to launch Impulse’s Mars cruise vehicle and Mars lander to a trans-Mars injection orbit. The Impulse vehicles would then make their way to the Red Planet for the landing attempt. Payloads are expected to ride with the vehicle, although Matsumori said that no details are available right now about the types of science or tech equipment coming along with them.

The goal is also to missiomtest as much of the technology as possible before aiming for Mars. For example, Matsumori said the five-pound thrusters being used on the LEO Expression mission in November 2023 are the same propulsion elements that will be used for the Mars cruise vehicle. If necessary, the Mars tech can also be repurposed for other missions; for example, the Mars lander could conceivably be used for the Moon, pending adjustments for the lack of atmosphere.

All of this activity has generated considerable internal growth, with about 80 employees now working at Impulse Space compared with no more than 40 a year ago, according to Matsumori. He added the company was honored with the recent fundraises: “If you’ve been paying attention to the investor market, it’s been very rough out there. So, we are extremely fortunate to have had such a good [funding] wrap.”