RTX's venture arm leads financing round for space startup
Gettyimages.com / Lev Savitskiy
By
Ross Wilkers
This two-year-old company is looking to extend itself beyond its current low-Earth orbit focus and work toward supportong so-called "GEO" missions.
RTX's venture capital arm has led a financing round that secured $45 million in Series A capital for Impulse Space, a startup developer of in-space transportation services for the inner solar system.
Impulse Space opened for business in 2021 with a near-term focus on low-Earth orbit missions that also involve in-space payload hosting and space asset repositioning work that includes de-orbiting. The company's long-term goal is to extend itself into transporting payloads in geostationary equatorial orbit, the Moon and Mars.
“With the support from RTX Ventures, Impulse Space continues on the path toward its mission to provide agile, economic logistics services in any orbit,” Impulse Space's founder and chief executive Tom Mueller said in a release Monday. “It speaks volumes that a leading investment firm is confident in the future of Impulse Space and its trailblazing technology.”
The company's current priorities involve a GEO refueling mission called LEO Express-1 and an upcoming flight to Mars, along with the development of Impulse Space's largest vehicle yet called Helios for GEO travel.
Airbus' venture capital arm, Founders Fund, Lux Capital and Space Capital were among the other investors that participated in the Series A funding round.
“RTX Ventures invests in companies that we believe provide breakthrough technologies that disrupt aerospace, defense and commercial aviation sectors,” RTX Ventures' president and managing director Daniel Ateya said. “Our investment will help Impulse Space accelerate their growth and fuel innovation within the space economy.”