Stoke Space raises $1B to challenge SpaceX on reusable rockets

Stoke Space Technologies has completed the initial closing of a $1 billion Series E round, funding intended to help the company reach orbit and prepare a new, larger rocket for operations. The round was led by Point72 Ventures — hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen’s tech investment vehicle — and Spark Capital, with participation from General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovative Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, and Y Combinator, among others. The raise brings Stoke’s total funding to $2.3 billion.

“This round is really to scale,” CEO Andy Lapsa told TechCrunch. “To lay the infrastructure, to scale in production and flight frequency, and importantly to fund the development of the second generation vehicle.”

Stoke is one of a handful of startups trying to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in low-cost rocket launches. Unlike rivals Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, or Firefly Aerospace, Stoke is aiming for full reusability of both stages — the booster and the payload-carrying second stage — a feat no company has achieved. SpaceX has spent well over $10 billion on its own fully reusable rocket, Starship, over the past decade, and the vehicle still hasn’t reached orbit, though that may change on its next flight.

Stoke’s approach to the hardest part of reusability — shielding the second stage from reentry heat — flows super-cooled liquid hydrogen through the thermal shielding, an active-cooling design Lapsa says has been tested extensively on the ground and will fly on the first mission. Lapsa expects that first vehicle, the Nova Pathfinder, to fly in early 2027, following structural and operational tests at Stoke’s Moses Lake facility; the next step is ground-testing each rocket stage together. The Pathfinder can carry three metric tons to low-Earth orbit, which Lapsa believes will make it the largest debut vehicle from any U.S. rocket maker, and the company has already sold launch contracts for it.

Stoke also revealed a bigger rocket, the Nova Block 2, which has been in development for several years and is designed to carry 15 metric tons to low-Earth orbit — slightly more than the Falcon 9. The goal is to deploy it in 2029, around when Musk has said the Falcon 9 will be phased out.

Why it matters

Stoke’s ambitions bet that rising launch demand will outstrip the supply of reusable rockets — a mismatch Lapsa says will only grow if SpaceX’s own Starship program pulls capacity away from third-party customers.