A Redondo Beach Startup Raised $308 Million. It Moves Satellites.

Impulse Space, founded by a former SpaceX propulsion executive, says the extension brings its Series D total to $808 million.

Impulse Space, a Redondo Beach builder of spacecraft that move satellites after launch, raised a $308 million extension to its Series D. That brings the round to $808 million and the company's total capital raised above $1.3 billion, dot.LA reported on September 18, 2026. Impulse didn't disclose a valuation.

The hiring is the part the South Bay feels. Impulse says its staff count has doubled and then some since last year. Over the same stretch it grew its footprint in Redondo Beach, Mojave, Boulder and Washington, D.C. More hiring, product development and further facility growth are where the new money goes, the company says.

Existing backers wrote the checks. 137 Ventures, BANNER VC, DFJ Growth, Linse Capital, Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners all took part in the extension, which came a little over three months after Impulse announced the initial $500 million.

The company was founded by Tom Mueller, who ran propulsion at SpaceX. Its pitch is the leg of the trip nobody sells tickets for: a rocket gets a payload off the ground, and Impulse's vehicles are meant to take it the rest of the way. Mira, its maneuvering spacecraft, handles payload deployment and close-in operations and has already flown in space. Helios, a high-energy kick stage designed to push payloads from low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit in under a day, is scheduled for a first flight in 2027. Electra, an electric propulsion system, is in the lineup too. So is a rideshare service pitched at higher-energy orbits.

Federal customers are already buying the thesis, per dot.LA: Helios was selected for the U.S. Space Force's National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 program, the first upper stage awarded a prime position there, and Impulse took a $28 million contract extension to supply two Mira spacecraft for additional Space Systems Command missions.

Impulse also hired its first chief financial officer, Adam Townsend, who previously helped steer the television maker Vizio through an initial public offering and its sale to Walmart. That's the kind of hire a company makes when the next few years are about contracts and headcount rather than test stands.

Helios flies in 2027, the company says. Until then, Mira is the only Impulse vehicle with orbit time on it.

Source: dot.la, retrieved September 23, 2026.