A Bletchley-based UK start-up building advanced space engines, including electric thrusters and an experimental nuclear fusion rocket concept.
Pulsar Fusion works on rocket and thruster technology for space, from engines that lift rockets to unusual ones for travel between planets. It has demonstrated a Hall-effect satellite thruster, a type of electric engine that pushes out charged particles at very high speed, which it reports testing at an exhaust velocity of 20 kilometres per second. It has also tested hybrid rocket engines using polyethylene and nitrous oxide, in November 2021. Its most ambitious project is Sunbird, a concept for a fusion-powered spacecraft engine that it describes as an orbital tug for moving spacecraft, not a replacement for launch rockets.
Richard Dinan founded the company in 2011 and is its chief executive. Wikipedia describes it as a UK-based start-up that has demonstrated two designs of prototype rocket engine. The company's stated aim, as described in a March 2026 report, is to combine strong thrust with very high exhaust speed, which would shorten journeys in deep space. We did not find a values statement. Its published targets include a flight demonstration of core components in 2027 and a production-ready system in the early 2030s, but these are goals, not results.
Pulsar Fusion is headquartered in Bletchley, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, and its test work is done there. In March 2026 it announced what it called first plasma in its Sunbird test system, running on krypton gas and shown live to an audience at Amazon's MARS conference in California while its UK team operated the equipment. It says near-term work includes measuring thrust and exhaust velocity and studying radiation effects with the UK Atomic Energy Authority. It cites support from the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency. A search result suggested a US office in Texas, but we did not read it and cannot confirm.
Wikipedia names several members of the team: James Lambert (Director of Operations), Dr Adam Baker (Propulsion Engineer) and Lolan Naicker (Senior Advisor, Rocketry), alongside Mr Dinan. Mr Dinan called the first-plasma moment an exceptional moment and a genuine privilege. We found no material on working culture, headcount or office life, so we cannot say what it is like to work there.
People in a company like this might include plasma physicists, propulsion and mechanical engineers, electronics and magnet specialists, test technicians and people running business development and communications. Bletchley is an unusual setting too: it is the home of the wartime codebreakers, and the area has a long history of invention. If you are interested in physics, nuclear science or electrical engineering, it shows how those subjects could be applied to space travel.
Website: www.pulsarfusion.com
PURPOSE helps school and university students explore 62 sectors and over 1,000 entry-level careers in the UK, then connects them directly with employers.
Explore PURPOSE