Stoke Space will use an initial $1 billion of a Series E round to build production capacity, speed up its flight tempo and advance a second‑generation fully reusable vehicle, the company says. The financing, led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital with participation from General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovation Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital and Y Combinator, brings Stoke's total raised to $2.3 billion and is earmarked for infrastructure, expanded manufacturing and work on its larger follow‑on rocket.
The immediate consequence is clearer runway for Stoke's Nova Pathfinder, which the company is targeting for an orbital attempt in early 2027. Stoke says Pathfinder is designed to deliver three metric tons to low Earth orbit and that it has already sold launch contracts for that payload capability. The startup is also developing Nova Block 2, a 15 metric ton vehicle it expects to field in 2029, which Stoke frames as a competitor to medium‑heavy launchers as Falcon 9 is phased out, according to Musk.
Stoke's technical route differs from many recent entrants because it is pursuing reusability for both the booster and the upper stage, a capability no commercial vehicle has yet achieved. The firm plans an active thermal solution that flows super‑cooled liquid hydrogen through the heat shield, a system Stoke says has been tested extensively on the ground and will be used on the first flight. That approach concentrates risk on heat‑shield and plumbing performance during ascent and reentry, even as it promises deeper reusability if it works.
CEO Andy Lapsa framed the funding as a scaling step: "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 that systems checks so far have been compartmentalised, with both ground systems and rocket hardware reviewed independently. "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," Lapsa said, signalling the next steps.
Stoke reports structural and operational testing of Pathfinder's first stage at its Moses Lake facility, and the company says integrated stage firings and a full launch rehearsal are the immediate milestones the new financing is intended to support. The path to routine flights remains uncertain; many launch programs face iterative delays as they move from tests to operational cadence. For Stoke, the new capital buys time and resources to execute that transition and to press its claim as a commercial launch supplier focused on reusable, end‑to‑end hardware.
