Stoke Space has completed an initial closing of a $1 billion Series E funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $2.3 billion. The Washington-based startup is preparing for the first orbital flight of its fully reusable Nova Pathfinder rocket in early 2027 while simultaneously unveiling plans for a larger vehicle.
Funding a Fully Reusable Rocket Ambition
The Washington-based launch startup has secured a massive financial injection to accelerate its long-term aerospace manufacturing and flight goals. According to TechCrunch, Stoke Space Technologies completed the initial closing of its $1 billion Series E round, lifting the company’s total cumulative funding to $2.3 billion.
The financing round was co-led by Point72 Ventures, the tech investment vehicle of hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, and Spark Capital. Additional participants in the syndicate included General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovation Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, and Y Combinator. The Next Web noted that Y Combinator’s presence in a Series E round is unusual for a rocket manufacturer, highlighting how early some institutional backers entered the venture.
While the round is sized at $1 billion, the exact amount cash-deposited during this initial closing has not been fully detailed by corporate leadership. Chief Executive Officer Andy Lapsa emphasized the primary utility of the new capital during an interview.
“This round is really to scale, to lay the infrastructure, to scale in production and flight frequency, and importantly to fund the development of the second generation vehicle.”
Andy Lapsa, CEO of Stoke Space
Technical Architecture and the Nova Pathfinder Timeline
Unlike traditional commercial launch providers that recover only first-stage boosters—such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which discards its upper stage—Stoke is attempting complete reusability for both the booster and the payload-carrying second stage. Re-entering from orbital velocity requires surviving extreme thermal stress, a hurdle that has complicated similar heavy development efforts across the industry.
To shield its second stage, Stoke bypasses conventional passive tiles in favor of a proprietary active cooling system. Lapsa explained that the vehicle flows super-cooled liquid hydrogen through its thermal shielding.
“We can flow excess coolant — more than we think we need in order to overcool the surface of the vehicle — and take a conservative stance from that perspective in early flights.”
Andy Lapsa, CEO of Stoke Space
Ground testing of the first stage at the company’s Moses Lake facility has progressed through structural and operational evaluations. The next engineering milestone involves combined checkouts. As Lapsa described it to TechCrunch, the ground system is checked out to the extent that we can do it without the rocket, and the rocket’s checked out to the extent that we can do it without the launch pad, so the next step is to do them together.
The company targets early 2027 for the maiden flight of the Nova Pathfinder vehicle. The startup has already sold launch contracts for the rocket, which is designed to deliver three metric tons to low-Earth orbit.
Unveiling Nova Block 2 for Heavy Capacity
Alongside funding updates for its initial vehicle, Stoke revealed engineering details for a larger, second-generation rocket under development over the past few years. The Nova Block 2 will utilize the core engine and active thermal shielding technologies proven on the Pathfinder while expanding payload capacity significantly.
The upgraded vehicle will accommodate 15 metric tons to low Earth orbit inside a five-meter fairing, aligning its lift capability closely with established medium-lift standards. Stoke aims to introduce Nova Block 2 in 2029.
That deployment window coincides directly with timelines suggested for the retirement of SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Spark Capital investor Clay Fisher framed full reusability as the inevitable end state of the market.
Meanwhile, Lapsa noted that the industry’s supply and demand mismatch provides clear runway for new entrants regardless of incumbent operational shifts.
“Now is the time to get moving […] 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.”
Andy Lapsa, CEO of Stoke Space
Institutional Backing and Federal Ties
Beyond private venture capital, Stoke’s engineering roadmap relies on government partnerships. The Next Web reported that the company’s technology development has received support from NASA, the U.S. Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit, and the National Science Foundation. These institutional relationships provide stability for component research as the company prepares its Moses Lake infrastructure for active flight campaigns.
Ещё по этой теме
