Impulse Space, founded in 2021 by ex-SpaceX engineer Tom Mueller, is an in-space transportation company and space tug provider. It develops orbital transfer vehicles like Mira and Helios to move satellites and payloads from LEO to other orbits, including GEO, lunar, and Martian destinations. Impulse Space has partnered with companies like Relativity Space, Exolaunch, and Anduril, and was selected by NASA as a launch service provider under the VADR contract.
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Impulse Space is willing to conduct missions to the Moon or Mars at lower profits due to the interesting nature of the work.
Tom Mueller is the founder and CEO of Impulse Space.
Impulse Space successfully developed the Mira spacecraft from clean-sheet design to orbit in less than 15 months.
Impulse Space has begun work on the engine for the lunar lander, which will use a nitrous and ethane bipropellant.
The proposed mission architecture combines Impulse’s Helios kick stage and a new lunar lander to be developed in-house.
Impulse’s lunar lander will ride as a payload on Helios.
Impulse estimates that the Helios and lunar lander combination can deliver up to 6 tons of payload mass to the Moon across two missions per year starting in 2028.
Impulse Space has demonstrated the capability of its technologies for in-space mobility beyond near-Earth orbit.
Impulse Space has unveiled a proposed mission architecture for delivering multiple tons of cargo to the Moon.
The engine for the lunar lander is designed to be highly throttleable, restartable, and to have a high specific impulse (Isp).
Eric Romo, president and COO of Impulse Space, noted that Mars missions provide recruitment and retention benefits by exciting staff.
The lunar cargo delivery gap identified by Impulse Space could include deliveries like rovers, communication relay systems, and power generators.
Impulse Space aims to build a lunar cargo delivery service with regular Moon missions beginning in 2028.
Impulse Space plans to fly the Helios kick stage for the first time next year.
Impulse Space has developed its Mira spacecraft from idea to operations in under 15 months.
Impulse Space has flown its Mira orbital transfer and payload hosting vehicle.
Impulse's lunar lander technology includes throttleable, restartable engines powered by stable, storable fuel capable of controlled lunar descents.
Impulse Space's lunar cargo delivery service builds on the company's existing mission profile of bringing payloads to Geostationary Orbit (GEO) using the Helios propulsion system.
The lunar lander will utilize thruster technology demonstrated on multiple flights of Impulse's Mira vehicle.
Impulse's lunar mission architecture pairs the Helios kick stage with a new lunar lander built by Impulse.