Space propulsion startup Impulse Space closes $500M investment
Impulse Space Inc. today announced that it has closed a $500 million late-stage investment led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC.
The Series D round brings the company’s outside funding to over $1 billion.
The cost of launching a satellite depends on the altitude at which it’s designed to operate. Sending a payload to low-Earth orbit, or LEO, is significantly cheaper than deploying it in more distant stretches of space. The reason is that reaching higher orbits requires more powerful rockets, which are pricier to build and operate.
Impulse Space is working to lower the cost of high-altitude satellite launches. The company is developing a space vehicle called Helios that can move satellites between different orbits. According to Impulse Space, a customer could launch a satellite into LEO aboard a relatively low-cost rocket and then have Helios ferry the system to a higher altitude.
