Stoke Space

In a 2025 account of the company’s founding, Lapsa distinguished rocket manufacturing costs from fixed costs such as factories and launch sites. He argued that full reuse must be paired with frequent flights to spread those costs, identifying upper-stage reuse as a way to reduce repeated manufacturing and increase cadence.⁠[1]

On September 17, 2023, Hopper2 completed a vertical takeoff and landing test in Moses Lake, reaching about 30 feet and landing after 15 seconds. It tested hydrogen/oxygen propulsion, regenerative cooling and differential-throttle attitude control. The low-altitude flight did not itself expose the vehicle to orbital reentry heating.⁠[3]

On October 5, the company announced a $100 million Series B led by Industrious Ventures and named its first rocket Nova. Funding supported the booster, orbital upper stage and Launch Complex 14 construction. Linde chairman Steve Angel joined the board as part of the round.⁠[4]

On January 15, 2025, Stoke announced a $260 million Series C, bringing reported total funding to $480 million. It supported Nova development, Launch Complex 14, testing and manufacturing. Participants included Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Point72Point72Point72 is an alternative investment manager founded by Steven A. Cohen and headquartered in Stamford, United States, with equities, systematic, macro, private credit and venture capital businesses. It formally adopted the Point72 Asset Management name in 2014.Open the full entry Ventures, Woven Capital and Y Combinator.⁠[5]

In March 2025, the company joined the U.S. Space Force’s NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 program, with an initial $5 million task order for capability assessment and mission-assurance preparation. The cited $5.6 billion was the pool of contracts available for competition, rather than revenue awarded to Stoke.⁠[6]

On February 10, 2026, Stoke extended its Series D to $860 million from the $510 million announced in October 2025. Reported cumulative funding reached $1.34 billion. The extension supported its product roadmap, following earlier funding for launch-site activation and manufacturing expansion.⁠[7]

On June 26, Stoke announced work with NASA on Nova upper-stage entry, descent and landing, using Ames hypervelocity free-flight testing and aerodynamic and guidance expertise. NASA’s 2025–2026 collaboration list includes the project; this program provides facilities and expertise through unfunded Space Act Agreements.⁠[8][9]

Kevin Weil joined the board on July 8. In the announcement, he emphasized making space transportation more reliable, affordable and routine. Stoke highlighted his experience scaling technology products and organizations as it prepared for commercial operations.⁠[10]

On September 8, Stoke announced the initial closing of a $1 billion Series E co-led by Point72 Ventures and Spark CapitalSpark CapitalSpark Capital is a U.S. venture capital firm founded in Boston in 2005, with offices in San Francisco, New York and Boston. Its early-stage and growth funds back technology businesses across fintech, enterprise software, AI and consumer products. Investments have included Twitter, Tumblr, Oculus, Plaid and Anthropic.Open the full entry, reporting about $2.3 billion raised in total. Funding supported first-flight preparations, capacity expansion and the larger Nova Block 2.⁠[11]

The roadmap uses Pathfinder to test full-reuse technologies before scaling to Block 2, with Zenith booster engines and an Andromeda upper stage incorporating an actively cooled metallic heat shield. Block 2 targets 15 tonnes to low Earth orbit while fully reusable, with a five-metre fairing. Planned first flights were early 2027 for Pathfinder and 2029 for Block 2.⁠[2]

The September 22 first-flight manifest included AstroForge’s Autonomy-1, demonstrating spacecraft autonomy and supporting NASA Goddard’s COMPASS heliophysics payload, alongside Celestis’s Infinite Flight payload. These remained planned first-flight missions.⁠[12]

On October 14, Stoke reported that its upper stage had left the Kent factory for Moses Lake, where cryogenic proof testing and an Andromeda hotfire campaign were planned before shipment to Cape Canaveral. This marked ground-test preparation, not completion of an orbital flight.⁠[13]

Official website: https://www.stokespace.com/ (opens in a new window). Its public X account is https://x.com/stoke_space (opens in a new window).⁠[14]