WASHINGTON — In-space transportation services startup Impulse Space announced July 24 it has closed a $45 million iSeries A funding led by RTX Ventures, the enterprise capital arm of Raytheon Technologies.
Impulse Space is led by rocket engine designer Tom Mueller, a founding worker of SpaceX. The startup develops orbital transportation vehicles.
“With the support from RTX Ventures, Impulse Space continues on the trail toward its mission to supply agile, economic logistics services in any orbit,” Mueller said in a news release.
The corporate last 12 months announced a $20 million seed funding round. Impulse Space seeks to supply “last mile” delivery services for satellites launched on rideshare missions comparable to those flown by SpaceX on its Falcon 9 rocket.
Impulse Space said its upcoming missions include LEO Express-1, a geostationary orbit refueling mission and a mission to Mars.
Developing larger vehicle
The Series A funding will support the event of Impulse’s largest vehicle yet, called Helios. The corporate said the Helios kick stage enables direct to geostationary orbit missions, thus bypassing the necessity for a geostationary transfer orbit.
“RTX Ventures invests in firms that we consider provide breakthrough technologies that disrupt aerospace, defense and business aviation sectors,” said Daniel Ateya, president and managing director of RTX Ventures. “Our investment will help Impulse Space speed up their growth and fuel innovation inside the space economy.”
Other investors within the Series A funding round included Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Airbus Ventures and Space Capital.