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Stoke Space — Startup ProfileFully reusable rockets — both stages — built the SpaceX-way by SpaceX alumniHQ: Kent, WA, United States | Founded: 2019 | Employees: ~500 (est.) | Stage: Late Stage VC (~$9B reported, 2026) | Website: https://www.stokespace.comAboutStoke Space was founded in 2019 in Kent, Washington by Andy Lapsa and Tom Feldman — Lapsa an 11-year SpaceX veteran who led propulsion development on the Merlin engine line and left convinced the next frontier was full reusability of both rocket stages. While every other SpaceX competitor (Rocket Lab, Relativity, Firefly) pursues partially reusable boosters, Stoke went directly at the unsolved problem: bringing the upper stage home intact. Its solution is technically audacious — a second-stage heat shield that actively cools itself by flowing cryogenic liquid hydrogen through the vehicle's skin during reentry, turning the hottest surface in rocketry into a regenerative cooling system, exhaustively ground-tested per CEO Lapsa.The Nova rocket reflects the same first-principles thinking: liKey Metrics

Total Funding: $2.3B

Last Round: $1B Series E initial close (Sep 2026)

Valuation: ~$9B (reported, 2026)

First Orbital Flight: Early 2027 (Nova Pathfinder)

Payload to LEO: 3t (Pathfinder) / 15t (Block 2, 2029)

Founded: 2019 by ex-SpaceX propulsion lead

Funding Rounds

Round: $260M (2025-01-15) — Undisclosed

Round: $510M (2025-10-08) — Undisclosed

Round: $1B (2026-09-08) — Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital (co-led)

Key People

Andy Lapsa

Tom Feldman

Key Competitors

SpaceX (Falcon 9 / Starship) —

Rocket Lab (Neutron) —

Relativity Space (Terran R) —

Blue Origin (New Glenn) —

Timeline Highlights

2027: First orbital flight (target)

2026-09-08: $1B Series E (initial close)

2025-10-08: $510M Series D at ~$2B

2025-01: $260M Series C

2023: Upper-stage hop tests