AI Summary
5 min readThe startup Impulse Space just closed a $500 million Series D, bringing its total capital raised past $1 billion. CEO and CTO Tom Mueller, a SpaceX co-founder, joined the show to explain why the company is building what he calls "trucks and vans" for orbit—a logistics network that moves cargo after launch, not just from the ground.
The core problem: getting stuff around once it's in space
Most space news focuses on getting mass to orbit—launch. But once a satellite or payload arrives, it is often not in the right place. A Falcon 9 Transporter mission drops dozens of small satellites into a single low-Earth orbit (LEO). If you need your satellite at a different altitude, or at geosynchronous orbit (GEO) 22,000 miles up, you need a different vehicle. Impulse Space builds those vehicles.
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Show Notes
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Today’s show:
Want to get to space? Several launch companies can help you. SpaceX, Rocket Lab, the Russians, the list goes on. But what about once you make it upstairs, then what? Impulse Space CEO and CTO Tom Mueller is building the next stage of our orbital economy. With its Mira and Helios spacecraft, we’ll soon be able to take mass from lower orbits to higher orbits, or even to the Moon, with ease.
Meanwhile, venture capitalists are enamored with the idea of humanoid robots — robots share our shape, our work environment, and even our tools. But startups like Dusty Robotics are taking a different tack; instead of building human-shaped robots, Dusty has built a small, wheeled 'bot that can mark out building sites quickly and accurately. And it’s doing more revenue than all humanoid robotics companies combined, I reckon. Dusty’s CEO, Dr. Tessa Lau, joins Alex to go deep on purpose-built robots in today’s build-crazy market.
Timestamps:
0:00 Blue Origin, and why fixing things in orbit is hard
2:19 What Mira is and what it does
4:35 Why was the commercial demand for Mira softer than expected
5:20 Space Force demand and the GEO-capable Mira
7:08 Helios: a "rocket on top of a rocket."
10:10 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST
11:35 How Helios beats Falcon Heavy on price ($25M)
13:35 Reusability, in-orbit refueling, and propellant depots
15:38 Landers, the Moon base, and "Mega Helios."
18:52 NSSL and the politics of flying government payloads
20:16 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io
20:51 Why the Moon matters: megastructures and data centers in space
25:09 The space talent market and the SpaceX "mafia."
30:16 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
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