Stoke Space: News & Discussions

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Stoke Space - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Stoke Space Technologies is an American space launch company based in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington.

The company was founded by a group of former Blue Origin and SpaceX employees.[2] In May 2020, the company won a $225,000 SBIR Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation to work on an integrated propulsion solution for reusable rocket upper stages

 

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Stoke Space raises $260 million

Stoke Space has raised $260 million to advance development of a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle and its Cape Canaveral launch site.

spacenews.com

Stoke Space raises $260 million​

Stoke Space is developing Nova, a medium-class launch vehicles whose two stages are both designed to be reusable

WASHINGTON — Stoke Space has raised $260 million to advance development of a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle and its Cape Canaveral launch site.

Stoke announced Jan. 15 that it raised a Series C round from a group and new and returning investors. The company declined to disclose the valuation of the round, stating only that it has raised $480 million to date, including a $100 million Series B in October 2023.

The company, based in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington, has been working on Nova, a medium-lift vehicle whose two stages are both designed to be reusable. The company recently performed the first firings on a vertical test stand of Zenith, the engine that will power the first stage of the vehicle. That engine, using liquid oxygen and methane propellants, uses a full-flow staged combustion architecture for peak efficiency.

“We deeply appreciate the confidence investors have placed in Stoke and our mission,” Andy Lapsa, chief executive and co-founder of Stoke Space, said in a statement. “This new investment validates our progress and enables us to accelerate the development of technologies that will redefine access to and from space.”

Among the investors participating in the Series C round are Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Industrious Ventures, Leitmotif, Point72 Ventures, Seven Seven Six, the University of Michigan, Woven Capital and Y Combinator. Lapsa said in an interview that the funding was split roughly “50-50” between new and existing investors.

He said that the funds would go towards completing development of Nova as well as renovations of Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that will serve as the vehicle’s launch site. The company is making good progress on both, he said, with the launch site to be done by the end of the year, but declined to give an estimate for when the first launch would take place. He added, though, that the funding would support the company through vehicle development and later phases.

Nova is designed to place 3,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit when both stages are reused and up to 7,000 kilograms otherwise. The upper stage, which has an actively cooled metallic heat shield, can bring back payloads from orbit as well.

Lapsa said that Nova can provide customers, particularly of smaller payloads, with the reliability, affordability and cost that they are looking for in a market that today has limited competition. The ability of the upper stage to return payloads opens up additional opportunities, he noted.

“Rapid and reliable reuse of a rocket’s upper stage is the last big challenge to solve before mobility to and from space becomes akin to other forms of transportation,” he said. “It represents a significant inflection in the space economy, and in turn opens the door to an incredible set of business opportunities that make life more vibrant on and off Earth.”

 

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Stoke Space Raises $1B for Fully Reusable Rocket

Stoke Space is raising $1 billion at a $9 billion valuation to build Nova, a fully reusable rocket targeting its first launch in 2026.

www.briefs.co

Stoke's $1 Billion Quest for a Fully Reusable Rocket​

Summary:​

• Stoke Space is raising $1 billion at a $9 billion valuation
• The Nova rocket is designed for full vehicle reusability
• First launch is targeted for August 13, 2026

Most rockets today are like throwing away an airplane after every flight. Stoke Space wants to change that, and investors are lining up to help.

The Kent, Washington startup is looking to raise $1 billion to speed up development of its fully reusable Nova rocket. The round would value the company at about $9 billion before the new money arrives, according to people familiar with the matter, and Stoke hopes to close the deal this month.

The company's press office would not discuss the fundraising.

The Big Idea Behind Nova​

Stoke got its start in 2019, with a team drawn from Blue Origin, the rocket company backed by Jeff Bezos. The team is preparing Nova's first launch, but the rocket's design is what sets it apart.

SpaceX's Falcon 9, the workhorse of the industry, is only partially reusable. SpaceX recovers the first stage booster, but the upper stage burns up or splashes down after each mission. Nova is designed to come back in one piece, every time.

That means the entire vehicle needs to survive the brutal trip back through the atmosphere. Stoke is working on a liquid-cooled heat shield to protect Nova from hot plasma during reentry, and the company says each rocket needs little servicing between flights. The goal is quick turnaround, like refueling a jet instead of rebuilding one.

No rocket operator has pulled off full vehicle reuse yet. SpaceX's Starship is trying to reach that milestone, but no complete Starship has been brought back intact so far [ ].

The Challenge of Coming Home​

The heat shield is the hardest part of the whole equation. When a rocket reenters the atmosphere, friction creates temperatures that can melt most materials.

SpaceX's Starship uses hexagonal ceramic tiles to handle that heat. Outside experts have questioned whether that system will hold up, but Elon Musk said on a recent earnings call that he thinks the heat shield design is "solved."

Stoke is taking a different path with its liquid-cooled approach. If it works, the payoff is enormous. A fully reusable rocket could slash launch costs dramatically, which is why investors are willing to bet big.

Earlier backers include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the fund founded by Bill Gates, along with Glade Brook Capital and Toyota Ventures. The company closed an extended Series D round in February after raising $860 million, bringing its total fundraising to $1.34 billion at that point.

If this new round succeeds, Stoke's valuation would jump past Relativity Space's $4.2 billion valuation from 2021, which came before that company's first successful spacecraft. Relativity later ran into trouble with the 3D-printing approach it used to build its rockets.

What This Means for Your Portfolio​

The space industry is heating up because global launch capacity is tight. Companies need to get satellites into orbit, and there are not enough rockets to carry them all. That bottleneck is why so many firms are building Falcon 9 competitors.

Stoke is aiming for a first launch soon, with the company targeting August 13, 2026 as a key date in its development timeline. A successful debut would put it in rare company. A failure would not erase the $1.34 billion already in the bank, but it would delay the dream of full reuse.

For investors, this is a reminder that the space race is no longer just a government project. Private companies are spending billions to solve problems that seemed impossible a decade ago, and every successful launch reshapes the economics of getting off the planet.

The question is not whether full reuse will happen. It is which company gets there first, and what that means for everyone else trying to reach orbit.