Mueller's Impulse Space Aims to Taxi the Cosmos
Tom Mueller—SpaceX’s former propulsion chief—founded Impulse Space to build in-space taxis that move satellites and cargo between orbits, with Mira and Helios vehicles designed to cut orbital transfers from months to about a day using in-house methane/oxygen propulsion. Impulse has raised roughly $1B and is valued around $4.3B as U.S. Space Force and NASA funding push a growing space economy; Helios aims for 4-ton payloads with first flight in 2027, while Mira has logged successful deployments despite a recent hiccup. The piece underscores both the promise of faster orbital logistics and the risk of competition from SpaceX as the fiscal and industrial scaffolding for a space economy expands.