The archive · Hardware & Devices · Technical decision · 2019–2026
Stoke Space's full-reusability bet: Nova assembled, $1.34B raised, launch late 2026
Fully reusable two-stage Nova is assembled for a late-2026 debut; Stoke has raised $1.34B and is seeking ~$1B more at a ~$9B valuation.
Stoke Space Technologies
What the business is
Stoke builds Nova, a fully reusable two-stage medium-lift rocket whose second stage integrates its engine into the vehicle body and uses a liquid-cooled heat shield, designed to return intact and fly again quickly.
Starting capital：About $75M by late 2023 including a $65M Series A led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures; $100M Series B (Oct 2023); $260M Series C (Jan 2025) took the total to $480M; an extended Series D closed February 2026 took it to $1.34B; a ~$1B round at ~$9B pre-money was closing in August 2026 per Bloomberg.
How it started
Founded in 2019 by Andy Lapsa and Tom Feldman, both ex-Blue Origin, Stoke went through Y Combinator's Winter 2021 cohort and raised about $75M, including a $65M Series A led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. On 2023-09-17 its Hopper2 second-stage prototype flew 15 seconds to about 30 feet and landed vertically at Moses Lake, Washington, validating the unusual architecture: an oxygen-hydrogen engine integrated into the vehicle with thrusters around its circumference, with avionics, software and ground systems exercised in the loop. The US Space Force allocated Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral that year, and Stoke targeted orbit by 2025.
What happened
A $100M Series B followed in October 2023 and a $260M Series C in January 2025, funding engines, manufacturing and LC-14 activation. Nova's first stage completed proto-qualification in June 2026 after 46 structural tests at Moses Lake; in August 2026 Stoke reported first-stage engines finished and mated the payload module, second-stage tanks and Andromeda 2 engine for fit checks. NASA selected Stoke in June 2026 for an upper-stage re-entry partnership, while the first orbital flight slipped from 2025 to a late-2026 target.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Stoke Space Technologies, founded in 2019 by former Blue Origin engineers Andy Lapsa and Tom Feldman, bets that full reusability of every rocket stage is where the next big cut in launch cost comes from. Its Nova is a medium-lift, two-stage vehicle whose second stage integrates its oxygen-hydrogen engine into the body with thrusters ringing the circumference, and which uses a liquid-cooled heat shield so the whole vehicle can re-enter and refly with little refurbishment. Unusually, Stoke built and proved the second stage first, before most of the orbital system existed.
The proof point came on 2023-09-17, when the Hopper2 second-stage prototype flew for 15 seconds, reached about 30 feet and landed vertically at the company's Moses Lake, Washington test site — a small hop that validated engine, avionics, software and ground systems together. CEO Andy Lapsa called the answers to the architecture's open questions 'resounding yeses.' By then Stoke had raised about $75M, including a $65M Series A led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and the US Space Force had allocated Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, the historic Mercury pad, for the company's launches.
Money and hardware followed: $100M Series B (Oct 2023), $260M Series C (Jan 2025, total $480M), then an extended Series D closed in February 2026, bringing cumulative funding to $1.34B. Nova's first stage completed proto-qualification in June 2026 after 46 structural tests at Moses Lake; in August 2026 Stoke said first-stage engines were done and it had mated the payload module, second-stage tanks and Andromeda 2 engine for fit checks. NASA selected Stoke in June 2026 for an upper-stage re-entry partnership, while the first orbital flight slipped from 2025 to late 2026.
As of 2026-09-02 Nova had not flown: the maiden Demo Flight is targeted for the end of 2026 from LC-14, with booster recovery expected on later flights. Bloomberg reported the company was raising about $1B at a roughly $9B pre-money valuation, closing as early as August 2026. No rocket operator has yet achieved full reusability — SpaceX's Starship is still working toward it — so the demo flight is the first real test of whether Stoke's liquid-cooled heat shield and aircraft-like turnaround claims survive contact with orbital flight.
What has to be true
- Falcon 9 reuses only the booster; each flight still expends a new upper stage and fairing. Whole-vehicle recovery is where the next big cut in launch cost must come from.
- Stoke validated the second stage — the part nobody had reused — with Hopper2's 2023 hop before scaling engines and pad work, so later capital backed demonstrated hardware.
- The medium-lift niche between Electron-class small launchers and Falcon 9 is underserved, and it is exactly the segment squeezed by the launch-capacity crunch Bloomberg describes.
- The liquid-cooled heat shield converts the classic re-entry problem into a refurbishment-free design choice, which is what 'aircraft-like frequency' of reflight actually requires.
What can be applied
Prove the riskiest architecture early: a 30-foot hop plus a novel heat shield carried Stoke to $1.34B before first orbital flight — investors price demonstrated hard problems, not slides.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Nova had not flown: its maiden Demo Flight is targeted for late 2026 from LC-14, with booster landing expected on later flights. Bloomberg reported Stoke was raising ~$1B at a ~$9B pre-money valuation, closing as early as August 2026, after the $860M Series D (February 2026) brought total funding to $1.34B. The company also holds a NASA upper-stage re-entry partnership and a Space Force-allocated pad; since no rocket has yet achieved full reusability, the bet rests on the first flight and on whether Nova's heat shield really refiles without refurbishment.
Sources
- Stoke Space completes milestone test in quest to build a fully reusable rocket
- Reusable rocket startup Stoke raised another massive round: $260M
- Stoke Space Is Raising $1 Billion to Fund Flagship Nova Rocket
- Stoke Space conducts second stage fit checks, completes first stage engines ahead of Nova debut
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