Stoke's Stellar Funding Expands

Stoke Space has just received a new round of funding for its medium-lift rocket, and with it has come new information. This funding round, totaling a hundred million dollars, came soon after Stoke successfully “hopped '' its Hopper2 vehicle, which demonstrated its unique engine, deep throttling, steering, RCS, and heatshield. Most spectacularly of all, Stoke's rocket now has a name, Nova.

What is Nova?

Nova is a medium-lift, fully reusable launch vehicle designed and manufactured by Stoke Space. The second stage of the rocket, the company’s pride and joy, features a metallically-cooled, hydrogen-powered heat shield that doubles as an aerospike - Rocketry's holy grail. Stoke has focused mostly on the reuse of the second stage, but also proudly displays its first stage, powered by seven full-flow staged-combustion engines and landing vertically, featuring Falcon 9-like grid fins and landing legs.

What’s New?

After three years, Stoke’s Rocket has officially been given a name - Nova! The name comes not a moment too soon- the company itself even recognized its lack of a name in 2023.

With Nova's name finally revealed, Stoke also released some well-needed updates on Nova’s performance. It sits at a healthy five tons of payload capacity, leaving room for substantial capacity to GTO and TLI, something many other smallsat providers will not be able to accomplish. With Stoke’s new funding round complete, further development on Nova can be completed.

What’s Next?

Using this money, Stoke will continue to develop and extend their capabilities. Hopper2 is only the beginning, and Stoke will likely use this money to continue to develop Nova. Soon, we will likely see additional first-stage development as Nova's development continues to ramp up. While some might always look to SpaceX for innovation, here, excitement is certainly guaranteed.