Impulse Space, a startup founded by former SpaceX engineer, raises $300M to power the future of orbital transport

Impulse Space, a space startup building spacecraft to move satellites between orbits, just raised a massive $300 million in fresh funding. The round, led by Linse Capital, brings its total funding to $525 million. The company didn’t disclose its new valuation.

Impulse will use the new funding to grow its team, speed up development, and scale production to meet rising demand. And judging by the numbers, demand is coming fast.

The funding is a big vote of confidence in Impulse’s mission: building space tugs that help satellite operators get to where they actually need to be after launch.

Impulse Space was founded by SpaceX propulsion legend Tom Mueller, one of the founding engineers at SpaceX and one of the minds behind its propulsion systems.

With $300M in New Funding, Impulse Space Gears Up to Lead In-Orbit Logistics

As launches become more crowded, especially with SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn on the horizon, rideshare missions are expected to become the norm. That means dozens of satellites stuffed into one rocket, all needing help reaching their final destinations. That’s where space tugs come in, and that’s the problem Impulse is betting big on.

The company’s vehicles, including its high-thrust spacecraft Mira, are built to take satellites from drop-off points into more precise orbits. It’s a cheaper and more flexible alternative to building custom launch profiles for every mission.

Impulse Space Founder Tom Mueller

So far, Impulse says it has locked in over 30 contracts across commercial and government sectors, totaling nearly $200 million in value, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, demand is coming from all directions: Earth observation, communications, and even deep space exploration, as operators look for faster, cheaper ways to move assets in orbit.

Beyond moving satellites, space tugs are becoming essential for broader goals like extending satellite lifespans, repositioning assets for better coverage, and even clearing orbital debris in the future.

With this new capital, Impulse plans to grow its team, scale up manufacturing, and push forward on R&D. It’s looking to meet rising demand from sectors like national security, defense, and space commerce — all of which are starting to treat in-space mobility as a basic requirement, not a bonus feature.

Mueller’s team is aiming to make Impulse Space a foundational layer of orbital infrastructure — the unseen logistics network quietly moving the future of space forward.