The fuel for a fully reusable rocket that can unlock truly low-cost access to space isn\u2019t methane or liquid oxygen. It\u2019s cash, and Stoke Space Technologies is tanking up. The company has now \u201ccompleted the initial closing\u201d of a $1 billion Series E round intended to help it reach orbit and prepare a new, larger rocket for operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis round is really to scale,\u201d CEO Andy Lapsa told TechCrunch. \u201cTo lay the infrastructure, to scale in production and flight frequency, and importantly to fund the development of the second generation vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The round was led by Point72 Ventures (hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen\u2019s tech investment vehicle), and Spark Capital, and included investment from General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovation Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital and Y Combinator, among others.<\/p>\n
Stoke is one of a handful of startups attempting to compete with Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX in the low-cost rocket launch space. SpaceX was built around the Falcon 9, which has a reusable booster stage, and now Musk and company are trying to field a huge, fully-reusable rocket, Starship.<\/p>\n
But unlike its rivals Rocket Lab, Relativity Space or Firefly Aerospace, Lapsa\u2019s company is aiming straight at that holy grail: A rocket where both the booster stage and the payload-carrying second stage come back to Earth so they can be reused cheaply. It\u2019s never been done before.<\/p>\n
Such ambition and technical feats require capital. SpaceX has spent well over $10 billion on Starship over the last decade, and the vehicle still hasn\u2019t yet reached orbit, although that may change on its next flight. Now, Stoke has raised $2.3 billion in total.<\/p>\n
In particular, SpaceX has struggled to identify the right materials and configuration for the components that shield the second stage of the rocket from the extreme heat caused when it is reentering the atmosphere. Stoke instead flows super-cooled liquid hydrogen through its thermal shielding, a unique active cooling solution that Lapsa says has been tested exhaustively on the ground and will be deployed on the first flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can flow excess coolant \u2014 more than we think we need in order to overcool the surface of the vehicle \u2014 and take a conservative stance from that perspective in early flights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lapsa said that he expects Stoke\u2019s first vehicle, the Nova Pathfinder, to take flight in early 2027. In a business known for delays, he\u2019s confident sharing that target following a series of structural and operational tests on the rocket\u2019s first stage at the company\u2019s Moses Lake facility. Next up is test-firing each stage of the rocket on the ground to ensure they are ready for flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ground system is checked out to the extent that we can do it without the rocket, and the rocket\u2019s checked out to the extent that we can do it without the launch pad,\u201d Lapsa said. \u201cSo the next step is to do them together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The startup has already sold launch contracts on the vehicle, which can carry three metric tons to low-Earth orbit \u2014 that will be, Lapsa believes, the largest debut vehicle of any U.S. rocket maker. That said, few rockets get off the ground on time or with total success, and simply getting to orbit would be an achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have multiple Pathfinder vehicles in production, and we have confidence that we will bring Pathfinder to market and into orbit regardless of this round,\u201d Lapsa said.<\/p>\n
Stoke also revealed plans for an even bigger rocket, the Nova Block 2, that has been under development for the past few years. Based on the same technologies as the Pathfinder, including the engines and the company\u2019s novel heat shield, that vehicle will be able to bring 15 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, slightly more than the Falcon 9.<\/p>\n
The goal is to deploy it in 2029, right when, according to Musk, the Falcon 9 will be phased out. Is Lapsa drooling at the possibility of picking up increasingly desperate launch customers just as SpaceX pulls back?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt amplifies the mismatch between launch supply and demand for launch, there\u2019s no question about that,\u201d he admits. \u201cRegardless of Falcon 9 retiring or not retiring, the space industry and the space economy scales exactly as fast as rockets get off the ground, particularly rockets that serve third-party customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
That last remark is a dog whistle that satellite operators will surely hear: When SpaceX\u2019s Starship takes flight, companies and government agencies looking to buy tickets will be competing with the space company\u2019s internal projects, and might have to pay a premium to use the big rocket. Stoke, on the other hand, has not revealed plans to operate its own space assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow is the time to get moving [\u2026] so that we can finally start deploying a lot of the constellations and applications that we aspire to as an industry but have been stuck on the ground,\u201d Lapsa said.<\/p>\n