Impulse Space, the startup founded by SpaceX engine guru Tom Mueller to develop high-mobility spacecraft, announced this week that it will spend $500 million in Series D hiring to hire as many as 200 new employees.
The round, led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC with participation from Founders Fund, Lux Capital and Linse Capital, reflects investor interest in space and defense technology as the U.S. government pours money into national security issues and SpaceX prepares for an IPO.
Impulse focuses on mobility in outer space. The company has developed a highly maneuverable platform called Mira, targeted at buyers for the U.S. Space Force. It is also building Helios, which is designed to quickly transport satellites to high orbit after they are dropped into near-Earth space.
President and COO Eric Romo told TechCrunch that the latest capital will help the company build and test more spacecraft, highlighting the company’s hiring plans at a time when demand for aerospace talent is on the rise.
Although the company’s software team has deployed AI coding tools, Romo said deep learning models are not yet ready for prime time when it comes to solving engineering problems in the real world. As SpaceX’s 13th employee in 2003, Romo’s job was to create computer simulations of the company’s engine designs and evaluate their performance.
“The simulation wasn’t very good, so I considered it a success if I got it within 20% of the correct answer,” Romo said. “It’s getting better, but not by much. So there’s no substitute for designing things, analyzing them, building them, and putting them on the test bench.”
Romo believes that the difficulty in finding suitable training data compared to the amount of text and code available on the internet to train LLMs will slow the arrival of AI tools for hardware design. “For example, if you want to find the best design for a turbo pump seal package in the world, you won’t be able to find it online,” he points out.
Impulse started with a focus on propulsion and evolved into building spacecraft. As a result, the company needed to add more expertise in the form of engineers to build the vehicle’s structure and flight computers. One reason the company recently opened an office in Colorado is because aerospace talent now has more options. Instead of going to Los Angeles, engineers can find jobs in Seattle, Denver, or Texas.
The company’s next goal is to launch the Mira spacecraft, which made its third flight late last year. The flight was not without its problems. Problems with the navigation system caused it to consume much of its propellant early on. Romo said the company is preparing a new Mira mission, expected to launch by the end of the year.
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