An Impulse employee works on assembling a Mira vehicle.Impulse SpaceLos Angeles-based space startup Impulse, which is led by renowned rocket specialist Tom Mueller, has raised $150 million in a new fundraising round led by venture capital firm Founders Fund.Impulse is scaling a product line of orbital transfer vehicles — colloquially known as “space tugs” — and so far is building two, the smaller Mira and the larger Helios.While rockets get satellites and payloads into orbit, like an airplane carrying passengers to a metro area, space tugs deliver them to specific destinations, like taxis taking those passengers home from the airport.Read more CNBC space newsSubscribe to CNBC’s Investing in Space weekly newsletterSpaceX Starlink has 2,500 airplanes under contract after United megadeal, director saysAirbus Ventures launches $155 million fund focused on deep tech, including spaceMueller, the first employee of SpaceX who spent nearly two decades developing engines for CEO Elon Musk, told CNBC that the funds will secure Impulse Space’s future. Mueller founded Impulse three years ago after leaving SpaceX and leads the company as CEO.”This means that we’re sufficiently funded through the development of Helios and the upgraded version Mira and out past the first flights of both of these products,” Mueller said.Tom Mueller delivering the commencement speech at the University of Idaho in 2018.University of IdahoImpulse flew 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 variety of additional demonstrations, with Mueller arguing it was “probably the most successful orbital transfer vehicle debut in history.””That success really helped with this raise, as well as all the customer engagement that we’re getting,” Mueller said.The company has a backlog of contracts from both commercial and government customers — ranging from standard satellite deliveries to building the propulsion system for a private space station to demonstrating the capabilities of its Helios vehicle in the distant geosynchronous orbit for the U.S. Space Force.A wide swath of venture investors joined the company’s $150 million round including: Airbus Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, Lux Capital, RTX Ventures, Spring Tide, Tamar …
