HomeRocket engine startup Impulse raises $500M to hire people over AI
Impulse Space, a company founded by former SpaceX propulsion expert Tom Mueller to develop highly maneuverable spacecraft, announced a $500 million Series D round this week, which it plans to use to hire up to 200 new employees.
The round was led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC, with participation from Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Linse Capital. It reflects growing investor interest in space and defense technology as the U.S. government pours funding into national security priorities and SpaceX prepares for its IPO.
Impulse focuses on in-space mobility. The company has built a highly agile platform called Mira, targeting U.S. Space Force buyers. It is also developing Helios, a vehicle designed to carry satellites rapidly to high orbits after they are released in space closer to Earth.
President and COO Eric Romo told TechCrunch the new funding will help the company build and test more spacecraft, and he highlighted the firm’s hiring plans at a time when aerospace talent is in high demand.
While the company’s software teams are adopting AI coding tools, Romo noted that deep learning models are not yet ready for prime time when it comes to solving real-world engineering problems. As the 13th employee at SpaceX back in 2003, Romo’s role was creating computer simulations of the company’s engine designs to evaluate their performance.
“I considered it success if I got within 20% of the right answer, because the simulations were just not that good,” Romo said. “They’ve improved, but they’ve not improved that much, and so there’s not really any substitute for designing the thing, analyzing the thing, building it, and then getting it on the test stand.”
Romo suspects that AI tools for hardware design may take longer to emerge because finding suitable training data is harder than the vast amounts of text and code available online for LLMs. “If you want to go, say, find the best designs for a turbo pump seal package in the world, you’re not going to find those online,” he points out.
Impulse initially focused on propulsion and then evolved into building full spacecraft, requiring the company to bring in more expertise from engineers who design vehicle structures and flight computers. One reason the company recently opened an office in Colorado is that aerospace talent now has more options — instead of moving to Los Angeles, engineers can find work in Seattle, Denver, or Texas.
Next up for the company is another launch of its Mira spacecraft, which completed its third flight late last year. That flight was not without incident — a navigation system problem caused the craft to use up much of its propellant early on. Romo said the company is preparing a new Mira mission expected to launch before the end of the year.
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Impulse Space, a company founded by former SpaceX propulsion expert Tom Mueller to develop highly maneuverable spacecraft, announced a $500 million Series D round this week, which it plans to use to hire up to 200 new employees.
The round was led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC, with participation from Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Linse Capital. It reflects growing investor interest in space and defense technology as the U.S. government pours funding into national security priorities and SpaceX prepares for its IPO.
Impulse focuses on in-space mobility. The company has built a highly agile platform called Mira, targeting U.S. Space Force buyers. It is also developing Helios, a vehicle designed to carry satellites rapidly to high orbits after they are released in space closer to Earth.
President and COO Eric Romo told TechCrunch the new funding will help the company build and test more spacecraft, and he highlighted the firm’s hiring plans at a time when aerospace talent is in high demand.
While the company’s software teams are adopting AI coding tools, Romo noted that deep learning models are not yet ready for prime time when it comes to solving real-world engineering problems. As the 13th employee at SpaceX back in 2003, Romo’s role was creating computer simulations of the company’s engine designs to evaluate their performance.
“I considered it success if I got within 20% of the right answer, because the simulations were just not that good,” Romo said. “They’ve improved, but they’ve not improved that much, and so there’s not really any substitute for designing the thing, analyzing the thing, building it, and then getting it on the test stand.”
Romo suspects that AI tools for hardware design may take longer to emerge because finding suitable training data is harder than the vast amounts of text and code available online for LLMs. “If you want to go, say, find the best designs for a turbo pump seal package in the world, you’re not going to find those online,” he points out.
Impulse initially focused on propulsion and then evolved into building full spacecraft, requiring the company to bring in more expertise from engineers who design vehicle structures and flight computers. One reason the company recently opened an office in Colorado is that aerospace talent now has more options — instead of moving to Los Angeles, engineers can find work in Seattle, Denver, or Texas.
Next up for the company is another launch of its Mira spacecraft, which completed its third flight late last year. That flight was not without incident — a navigation system problem caused the craft to use up much of its propellant early on. Romo said the company is preparing a new Mira mission expected to launch before the end of the year.
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