Kent, Wash.-based Stoke Space Technologies today revealed that it has raised $510 million in fresh funding to accelerate development of its fully reusable medium-lift Nova rocket.
The Series D funding round, let by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund, comes in conjunction with a $100 million debt facility led by Silicon Valley Bank. Stoke said the new financing has more than doubled its total capital raised, bringing the figure to $990 million.
“This funding gives us the runway to complete development and demonstrate Nova through its first flights,” Stoke co-founder and CEO Andy Lapsa said in a news release. If all goes according to plan, the first Nova rocket is expected to lift off next year from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Stoke Space, one of the brightest stars of the Seattle area’s growing space industry, is focusing on building a fully reusable rocket capable of putting two to 20 tons of payload in orbit. The company was founded in 2019 by Lapsa and Tom Feldman, a fellow veteran of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture. Feldman now serves as Stoke’s chief technology officer.
SpaceX has pioneered reusability for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy first-stage boosters, and Blue Origin has designed the booster of its New Glenn rocket to be reusable. But recovering and reusing the second stage of an orbital-class rocket is a tougher nut to crack. That’s one of the things that SpaceX is working to achieve with its Starship super-rocket — and that Stoke is working to achieve with Nova.
Stoke Space has developed a liquid-cooled heat shield that could open the way for second-stage reusability, which would lower the cost of access to space. The prospect of cheaper launches is why the startup has attracted nearly a billion dollars in funding from investors including Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Industrious Ventures and Y Combinator.
In today’s announcement, Tull praised the Stoke team’s vision and said he was “proud to support their mission in defining the next chapter of U.S. aerospace.”
“Launch capacity is now a defining factor in the U.S.’s ability to compete and lead in the space economy,” Tull said. “Stoke’s pioneering approach to reusable launch systems directly advances our national security and commercial access to orbit.”
The investors who joined USIT in the Series D round include Washington Harbour Partners LP, General Innovation Capital Partners, 776, Breakthrough Energy, Glade Brook Capital, Industrious Ventures, NFX, Sparta Group, Toyota Ventures and Woven Capital.
Stoke said the fresh funding will be used to expand production capacity for the Nova launch vehicle and finish refurbishment of Launch Complex 14 — the pad from which John Glenn lifted off to become the first American in orbit in 1962. Stoke also plans to invest in its supply chain, its Boltline software for project management, and the infrastructure that will be needed for high-cadence launch operations.
In addition to the Florida launch facility, Stoke has a 168,000-square-foot headquarters facility in Kent — not far from Blue Origin’s HQ — and a 75-acre test facility in Moses Lake, Wash.
While SpaceX and Blue Origin are focusing on heavy-lift rockets such as Starship and New Glenn, Stoke is targeting the medium-lift launch market. Even though Stoke Space hasn’t yet launched a rocket to orbit, it was added to the U.S. Space Force’s list of providers for national security launches this year.
“We’ve designed Nova to address a real gap in launch capacity, and the National Security Space Launch award, along with our substantial manifest of contracted commercial launches, affirms that need,” Lapsa said. “The fresh support from our investors and government partners enables our team to remain laser-focused on bringing Nova’s unique capabilities to market.”
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