Impulse Space buys three Falcon 9 launches (Image Credit: Space News)
WASHINGTON — Impulse Space has purchased three Falcon 9 launches for its Helios transfer vehicle for missions starting in 2026, including one for the Space Force.
Impulse Space announced Nov. 14 that it signed a contract with SpaceX for the Falcon 9 launches. Each launch will carry the company’s Helios transfer vehicle, a high-energy kick stage the company introduced in January to transport payloads quickly between orbits.
The first launch, planned for mid-2026, will be the first flight of Helios. The transfer vehicle will transport the company’s smaller Mira vehicle, carrying a commercial optical payload, from low Earth orbit to geostationary transfer orbit on the Victus Surgo mission for the Space Force and Defense Innovation Unit. Impulse Space received a $34.5 million contract for Victus Surgo and another mission, Victus Salo, Oct. 3. Impulse Space said the schedule and payloads for the other two Helios launches will be determined later.
“Securing these launches allows us to showcase the full potential of Helios,” Eric Romo, president and chief operating officer of Impulse Space, said in a company statement. “Delivering spacecraft to high energy orbits rapidly and economically changes the equation for commercial communication operators and national security missions like Victus Surgo.”
Helios is powered by a liquid-oxygen, liquid-methane engine called Deneb that produces 15,000 pounds-force of thrust. Impulse Space separately unveiled a developmental version of Deneb Nov. 14, claiming that the engine is “one of the highest-performing liquid oxygen/liquid methane engines” developed. The company said tests of Deneb will begin soon.
The company noted in its statement that at least the inaugural launch will take place from Florida, where Helios will be loaded with propellants before launch. SpaceX has the ability to fuel payloads with liquid oxygen and methane on the pad at Launch Complex 39A, which it used for the IM-1 lunar lander mission for Intuitive Machines launched on a Falcon 9 in February.
Impulse Space itself is fueled by a $150 million Series B round it announced Oct. 1, which the company said would support work on both Helios and Mira.
