Impulse Space company profile: valuation, funding & revenue

This Impulse Space company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Impulse Space works in space, with a focus on in-space transportation. It was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Redondo Beach, California, United States. Its latest valuation on record is About US$4.26 billion (reported) (June 2026). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.

Revenue

Funding history

Impulse Space timeline

Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.

• 2021 — Impulse Space is founded in Redondo Beach by Tom Mueller (CEO).
• Jun 2025 — Series C: US$300M. Investors: Linse Capital (lead); DFJ Growth, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund and others.
• Jun 2026 — Series D: US$500M, valuing the company at About US$4.26B (reported). Investors: 137 Ventures and Banner VC (co-leads).
• June 2026 — Total capital raised: More than US$1 billion after the Series D (company statement).

Investors

Overview

Impulse Space builds spacecraft that move satellites and cargo after they reach orbit, a business often described as "in-space mobility" or space tugs. Rockets typically drop satellites in a convenient orbit, but many satellites need to reach a different altitude or inclination, or travel to higher orbits such as geostationary orbit. Impulse's vehicles take satellites from where a rocket leaves them to where they need to be, faster and more precisely than the satellites could manage with their own small engines. In June 2026 it raised US$500 million in a Series D that, according to Reuters, valued it at about US$4.26 billion, bringing total capital raised to more than US$1 billion.

Tom Mueller founded Impulse Space in 2021 and serves as CEO. Mueller was one of SpaceX's founding employees and led the development of its Merlin and Draco engines, which power the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. After leaving SpaceX, he set out to solve what he saw as the next bottleneck in space transportation: getting payloads from low Earth orbit to their final destinations. The company is based in Redondo Beach, California.

Products

• Mira: a small, agile orbital transfer vehicle for low Earth orbit missions, rideshare delivery and hosted payloads. Its first flight, Mission Zero, launched in 2023.
• Helios: a high-energy kick stage designed to take payloads from low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit within about a day, rather than the months that electric propulsion can require.
• Engines: in-house thrusters and engines, including Deneb, a methane-oxygen engine for Helios.
• Mission services: integrated launch and delivery services that combine rides on large rockets with Impulse vehicles.

Funding

Impulse raised early funding from investors including Lux Capital, then a US$150 million Series B led by Founders Fund. In June 2025 it announced a US$300 million Series C led by Linse Capital, with new investor DFJ Growth and returning investors including Valor Equity Partners and Founders Fund, bringing total capital to US$525 million. In June 2026 it announced a US$500 million Series D co-led by 137 Ventures and Banner VC; Reuters, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported a valuation of US$4.26 billion. Because the company didn't publish the figure itself, we label it as reported.

Business model

Impulse sells missions: a customer pays to have its satellite delivered to a specific orbit or to host a payload on an Impulse vehicle. Customers include commercial satellite operators and government agencies, particularly defense organisations that want to move satellites quickly or reach orbits that standard rideshare missions don't serve. As launch prices fall thanks to large reusable rockets, demand for the "last mile" of space delivery is expected to grow.

Competition

Impulse competes with other orbital transfer vehicle companies such as D-Orbit, Firefly's Elytra and Momentus, with upper stages offered by launch providers, and with satellites that use their own electric propulsion to raise orbits slowly. Its advantages are high-thrust chemical propulsion for fast transfers, a founder with an exceptional engine track record and strong funding.

Impulse Space at a glance

Impulse Space is a Redondo Beach, California, in-space transportation company founded in 2021 by SpaceX founding employee Tom Mueller. It builds the Mira and Helios vehicles to move satellites between orbits. It raised a US$300 million Series C in 2025 and a US$500 million Series D in June 2026, which Reuters reported valued it at about US$4.26 billion.

Timeline

• 2021: founded by Tom Mueller.
• 2023: Mission Zero, Mira's first flight, launches.
• 2024: raises a Series B led by Founders Fund.
• June 2025: raises US$300 million Series C.
• June 2026: raises US$500 million Series D at a reported US$4.26 billion.

Why the last mile matters in space

Large rockets like Falcon 9 and Starship make it cheap to reach low Earth orbit, especially when many satellites share a launch. But each rideshare mission goes to one orbit, while customers need many different destinations. Geostationary satellites, used for communications and weather, sit about 36,000 kilometres above Earth, far beyond where rideshare missions drop payloads. Satellites can climb slowly using electric thrusters, but that can take months, delaying revenue or military capability. Fast transfer vehicles let operators use cheap launches and still reach precise orbits quickly, which is why investors see them as essential infrastructure as space traffic grows.

Defense demand

US defense agencies have shown strong interest in "responsive space": the ability to put satellites where they're needed quickly, including moving them to new orbits during a crisis. High-thrust vehicles like Helios could support such missions. National security customers are an important part of its market.

Who uses Impulse Space

Impulse's customers include satellite operators, government and defense agencies, and companies hosting payloads such as sensors or experiments on its vehicles.

Valuation context

A reported US$4.26 billion valuation reflects investor enthusiasm for space infrastructure in 2026, when several space companies raised at higher valuations. Our guide to space startups compares related firms.

Risks

• Technical risk: new engines and vehicles must perform reliably in orbit.
• Launch dependence: missions rely on other companies' rockets.
• Competition: launch providers could offer their own transfer stages.
• Market timing: demand depends on growth in satellite deployments.

Questions for customers

• How long will the transfer to your target orbit take?
• Which launch vehicles is the mission compatible with?
• What flight heritage does the vehicle have?

Latest developments (October 2026)

Impulse Space's June 2026 Series D of US$500 million at about US$4.26 billion, co-led by 137 Ventures and Banner Ventures, was followed in September by a reported US$308 million extension at about US$5.6 billion, according to Reuters; the extension terms came from a source close to the company. The company says it has flown three missions, sold out its Caravan rideshare missions for 2028, and plans the first flight of its larger Helios stage in 2027. See our space startups guide.

What to watch

Watch Helios' first flight, defense contracts, launch partnerships and any IPO plans.

Takeaways

Satellite operators can reach precise orbits faster. Founders can see how deep technical expertise can attract large funding. Investors should note that the latest valuation is reported rather than disclosed.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.

1. Yahoo Finance (Reuters)
2. Business Wire (company press release)