Stoke Space is a privately held American rocket company in Kent, Washington, founded by two former Blue Origin engineers, that is building Nova: a rocket designed so that both stages come back and fly again. The company has raised about $2.3 billion in private capital and has not yet reached orbit. Its first orbital flight is targeted for the first part of 2027, a schedule target the company has adjusted as vehicle development continues.
Founded around 2019, Stoke Space aims to enter the medium-lift commercial launch market to serve satellite operators and government agencies. Unlike traditional launch vehicles that discard hardware after a single flight, Stoke Space designed its core architecture around complete reusability for upper and lower stages. While established operators recover first-stage boosters, second-stage recovery remains unproven in operational commercial flight.
The Full-Reuse Design Strategy
Stoke Space designed its flagship Nova rocket so that both the booster and the upper stage return intact to the ground for refurbishment and reuse. Most commercial rockets operating today discard their second stage into orbit or the ocean after a single burn. That design choice means operators must manufacture a brand new upper stage, complete with guidance computers and vacuum engines, for every satellite delivery. Recovering both stages aims to lower hardware replacement costs, which Stoke Space considers necessary to expand flight availability across the space economy.
The technical concepts behind Nova, its heat shield architecture, and its stage configurations are examined in our dedicated guide to the Nova rocket. Stoke Space bets that complete recovery is the only mechanism that can lower the cost floor of space transportation. For a broader look at how aerospace engineers attempt to preserve vehicle stages during atmospheric reentry, see our explainer on how reusable rockets work.
Founders and Company Origins
Former Blue Origin engineers Andy Lapsa and Tom Feldman founded Stoke Space to develop fully reusable orbital launch vehicles. Lapsa, who serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), spent roughly a decade at Blue Origin as one of its original three employees. During that tenure, he worked on the BE-4 engine and later led the BE-3 and BE-3U engine programmes. Feldman, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), worked six years at Blue Origin as a propulsion design engineer, focusing on the BE-4 oxidizer pump and thrust chamber.
The co-founders left Blue Origin in autumn 2019 to analyse concepts for fully reusable launch vehicles. They began initial hardware development in a shipping container in Feldman’s backyard, where they built an early engine injector prototype. Sources differ on the official establishment date, listing the business as founded in 2019 or 2020 depending on the registry. Stoke Space gained early institutional backing when it was accepted into the Y Combinator Winter 2021 batch.
Manufacturing and Testing Facilities
Stoke Space operates three primary sites across Washington state and Florida to handle rocket production, static propulsion testing, and launch preparations.
Its headquarters in Kent, Washington, is a 168,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that houses production machinery, engineering offices, and mission control. Stoke Space conducts structural testing and hotfire testing within this Kent complex. No facility expansion beyond the 168,000-square-foot building is documented on record.
The company operates a dedicated test site in Moses Lake, Washington, where it runs component and stage hotfire tests. Stoke Space is expanding the Moses Lake footprint from 75 acres to 550 acres. That acreage allows the company to conduct parallel testing programs for two rocket types simultaneously.
Orbital missions will stage from Florida. The US Space Force allocated Launch Complex 14 (LC-14, also written SLC-14) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to Stoke Space on 7 March 2023. The assignment was an allocation rather than a lease, and no dollar figures were disclosed. This action formed part of a military strategy to reallocate excess launch property on the Eastern Range among four emerging launch providers: Stoke Space, ABL Space Systems, Phantom Space, and Vaya Space.
Launch Complex 14 carries historic pedigree. The site launched four Project Mercury astronauts, including John Glenn in February 1962, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, and Gordon Cooper, along with the chimpanzee Enos in 1961. The complex also supported seven Gemini missions before its deactivation in 1967, following 28 total liftoffs since 1957. The federal government designated LC-14 as a National Historic Landmark in 1984.
Lapsa described the pad assignment as “a profound responsibility that our entire team holds in the highest regard.” Details about the site’s history are documented by collectSPACE. Stoke Space received its operational license for LC-14 in October 2024 and broke ground on site alterations within 24 hours. As of September 2026, the pad rebuild is all but finished, with initial static fire tests and vehicle integration planned for 2027.
Funding History and Capital Raised
Stoke Space has raised $2.3 billion in private financing and research grants since starting operations. Roughly $2.1 billion of that capital arrived after January 2025, during an intensive period of ground testing and pad construction before the company reached orbit.
| Date | Round | Amount | Notable Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2020 | SBIR Phase I Grant | $225,000 | National Science Foundation |
| February 2021 | Seed Round | $9.1 million | NFX Guild, MaC Venture Capital |
| December 2021 | Series A | $65 million | Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Spark Capital, Toyota Ventures |
| October 2023 | Series B | $100 million | Industrious Ventures |
| January 2025 | Series C | $260 million | Institutional venture participants |
| October 2025 | Series D | $510 million | US Innovative Technology Fund |
| February 2026 | Series D Extension | $350 million | US Innovative Technology Fund |
| September 2026 | Series E | $1 billion | Point72 Ventures, Spark Capital, Y Combinator |
The Series A round in December 2021 also included participation from Alameda Research and Global Founders Capital. The February 2026 Series D extension brought that round to $860 million in total, led by Thomas Tull’s USIT Fund. The $1 billion Series E initial closing on 8 September 2026 was co-led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital, alongside General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, Washington Harbour Partners, and Woven Capital.
Stoke Space did not disclose a valuation during the Series E round; Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the investment valued the business at roughly $10 billion. Publications including TechCrunch, Payload, and Via Satellite noted the valuation was officially withheld.
Stoke Space is privately held as of October 2026, which means individual investors cannot buy shares on equity exchanges. Prospective public markets participation is detailed in our guide on Stoke Space stock.
Market Demand and the Commercial Launch Crunch
Stoke Space secured $1 billion in late 2026 capital before reaching orbit as demand for launch capacity outpaced supply.
Lapsa outlined the purpose of the Series E capital: “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.” He added: “Every mature transportation system is built around fully reusable vehicles. It’s the only way to reach the cost floor while scaling availability.” The company frames this constraint directly: “The space economy can only scale as fast as rockets can fly.”
Stoke Space is developing a larger second-generation vehicle to replenish commercial satellite constellations. Lapsa noted that “customers moving up in both size and quantity of their spacecraft” was a primary reason to begin engineering work on the larger rocket. He stated that the initial vehicle manifest is fully booked for the next couple of years, though he declined to specify exact flight numbers.
The Wall Street Journal reported on 21 September 2026, in an article by Micah Maidenberg and Becky Peterson titled “A Rocket Supply Crunch Is Making It Harder to Hitch a Ride to Space,” that SpaceX is winding down the Falcon 9 to focus resources on Starship. The Journal reported that SpaceX has stopped selling rideshare missions where several payloads share one rocket, and that some operators cannot book Falcon 9 slots after 2028. The report quoted Lapsa stating that “There’s a lot of panic in the market right now,” noting that Stoke Space accelerated work on a larger vehicle to absorb unserved payload demand.
Military Launch Contracts and NSSL Lane 1
The US Space Force selected Stoke Space on 27 March 2025 to participate in its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program, adding the business alongside Rocket Lab.
The contract award provided a $5 million firm-fixed-price task order for an initial capabilities assessment and for establishing tailored mission assurance processes. Stoke Space states this award enables it to compete for task orders under a $5.6 billion procurement program using Nova.
A regulatory limitation applies: Stoke Space cannot submit bids for operational NSSL Lane 1 mission orders until Nova completes a successful orbital launch. The military contract establishes an avenue to compete for defense missions once flight worthiness is proven. Stoke Space has also been selected for the Space Force Orbital Services Program. No Air Force Research Laboratory award could be verified.
Internal Software Development and Boltline
Engineers inside Stoke Space built Boltline, a cloud-based software suite created to track hardware components through design, fabrication, and test cycles. Complex launch vehicles involve thousands of serialized valves, lines, and custom brackets that demand tracking across multiple assembly facilities.
The founder of Boltline joined Stoke Space as the 13th employee in 2021 with an operational mandate to build internal software systems that could scale production. Boltline is a rebrand of that internal tracking software. Boltline’s corporate announcement did not disclose its previous software name, active customer lists, or financial figures.
Position Among Emerging Launch Companies
Stoke Space occupies an unusual position in the launch market by raising more private capital than competitors that are already flying operational missions.
| Company | Corporate Status | Orbital Status | Capital Raised | Active Rockets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stoke Space | Private | Unflown | $2.3 billion | Nova (in development) |
| Rocket Lab | Public | Operational | Public equity markets | Electron operational, Neutron in development |
| Firefly Aerospace | Public (Nasdaq: FLY) | Operational | Public equity markets | Alpha operational |
| Relativity Space | Private | Unflown current vehicle | Roughly $1.3 billion | Current vehicle unflown |
Rocket Lab flies its light Electron rocket regularly and is developing the medium-lift Neutron rocket, which has not yet flown. Firefly Aerospace trades on Nasdaq under the ticker FLY after pricing its initial public offering at $45.00 per share on 6 August 2025, operating the Alpha rocket. Relativity Space remains private, having raised roughly $1.3 billion across its history, including a $650 million round in June 2021 at a $4.2 billion valuation, with its current vehicle still unflown.
Stoke Space aims to capture medium-lift payloads that sit between small rockets like Electron and larger vehicles like Falcon 9. Customers in this mass bracket often seek dedicated launches rather than rideshares. On a shared flight, the primary customer dictates the orbit and launch schedule, forcing secondary payloads to accept non-optimal deployment altitudes. A dedicated medium-lift flight solves that scheduling friction. Readers can compare payload weight classes across the industry in our guide to launch vehicles.
Future Milestones and Orbital Targets
Conducting a successful orbital flight from Cape Canaveral is the critical technical milestone Stoke Space must achieve. Launch Complex 14 pad construction is largely complete, and the company plans to move into stage integration and static engine firings on the pad during 2027.
Stoke Space is targeting the first part of 2027 for its first flight. The company has shifted its maiden launch schedule in the past, reflecting the timeline required to validate novel propulsion and upper-stage recovery hardware. The company’s booked manifest and its eligibility to compete for $5.6 billion in NSSL Lane 1 defense contracts depend entirely on reaching orbit.
A successful orbital flight in 2027 would prove Stoke Space’s second-stage recovery design and introduce needed launch competition into commercial and defense markets. Launch failures, extended pad rebuilds, or flight delays past 2027 would delay customer deliveries and increase cash burn before revenue operations begin. Readers can monitor company updates on the official Stoke Space pathfinder portal, compare operational options in our Rocket Lab vs SpaceX overview, or review the physics of stage recovery in how reusable rockets work.