 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Space |
| Founded | 2020 |
| Founders | Andy Lapsa, Tom Feldman |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Nova reusable launch vehicle |
Number of employees | 125+ [1] |
| Website | https://www.stokespace.com/ |
Stoke Space Technologies is an American space launch company based in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington.
The company was founded by a group of former Blue Origin and SpaceX employees. [2] In May 2020, the company won a $225,000 SBIR Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation to work on an integrated propulsion solution for reusable rocket upper stages. [3] In February 2021, the company raised $9.1 million in seed funding in a round led by venture funds NFX Guild and MaC Venture Capital. [2] In December 2021, the company raised $65 million in a Series A round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, [4] funding development and testing of the upper stage of a reusable launch vehicle. [5]
In 2022, the company created a prototype of their second stage engine ring. Their prototype had at least 22 static fires in total.
In 2023, Stoke Space had an interview with Tim Dodd (also known as The Everyday Astronaut), wherein the CEO Andy Lapsa revealed their plan to create a fully and rapidly reusable orbital rocket. [6]
In the first months of 2023, Stoke Space finished the construction of Hopper1, a full-scale second stage prototype, intended to test fluid mechanics in the vehicle. On March 8, 2023, the company was given LC-14 in Florida as a future launch pad for their vehicles. [7] On March 18, Stoke Space's second stage conducted a Wet Dress Rehearsal, where the company loaded both Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Hydrogen into the stage's tanks, preparing it for launch without igniting the engines. [8]
On September 17, 2023, Stoke Space conducted a 10 meter "hop" test of "Hopper2", testing their unique differential steering method.
In 15 seconds, the vehicle ignited its 15 thrust chambers (half of the amount used on the operational vehicle), lifted 30 feet off the ground, showed its ability to steer without gimballing the engine like traditional rockets, and tested the actively cooled heat shield before successfully landing under three landing struts. [9] In October 2023, Stoke Space announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by Industrious Ventures. [10]
In April 2024, the company announced it had completed assembly and installation of a first stage engine for test firing. [11] In May 2024, the company announced significant construction progress in their engine test firing stand. [12] The first successful hot fire of Stoke Space's Full Flow Staged Combustion (FFSC) Engine named Zenith was reported in June 2024. [13]
The company operates a rocket test facility on a 75-acre (30 ha) site near Moses Lake's airport. [14] Additionally, they also operate a 168,000 square foot assembly facility in Kent, Washington, which also doubles as their headquarters and planned mission control. [15]
Nova is a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle being developed by Stoke Space. [16] Announced in October 2023, [17] Stoke Space plans to use two stages with an expected payload capacity of 5 tons (5,000 kg) to low Earth orbit (LEO), with the first stage performing a return-to-launch-site (RTLS) landing. The company plans to use 7 full-flow staged combustion rocket engines, burning methalox. The second stage will use a hydrolox (liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen) engine with 30 thrust chambers ringing a regeneratively cooled heatshield, [18] eliminating the need for thermal tiles. [19] [20] A center passive bleed in the second stage aims to create an aerospike engine-like effect for improved efficiency.
The vehicle was selected as part of the Space Force's Orbital Services Program. [21]
The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes. It belongs to the class of altitude compensating nozzle engines. Aerospike engines were proposed for many single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) designs. They were a contender for the Space Shuttle main engine. However, as of 2023 no such engine was in commercial production, although some large-scale aerospikes were in testing phases.
A reusable launch vehicle has parts that can be recovered and reflown, while carrying payloads from the surface to outer space. Rocket stages are the most common launch vehicle parts aimed for reuse. Smaller parts such as rocket engines and boosters can also be reused, though reusable spacecraft may be launched on top of an expendable launch vehicle. Reusable launch vehicles do not need to make these parts for each launch, therefore reducing its launch cost significantly. However, these benefits are diminished by the cost of recovery and refurbishment.
A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because they have reasonably high density and their combustion products have high specific impulse (Isp). This allows the volume of the propellant tanks to be relatively low.
Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX. They are currently a part of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, and were formerly used on the Falcon 1. Merlin engines use RP-1 and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. The Merlin engine was originally designed for sea recovery and reuse, but since 2016 the entire Falcon 9 booster is recovered for reuse by landing vertically on a landing pad using one of its nine Merlin engines.
Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and is developing the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own rockets, Blue Origin supplies engines for other vehicles, including United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur. It is also working on the Blue Moon human lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program, the Blue Ring spacecraft platform, and the Orbital Reef space station in partnership with other organizations.
The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants. They can consist of a single chemical or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into two categories; hypergolic propellants, which ignite when the fuel and oxidizer make contact, and non-hypergolic propellants which require an ignition source.
The staged combustion cycle is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine. In the staged combustion cycle, propellant flows through multiple combustion chambers, and is thus combusted in stages. The main advantage relative to other rocket engine power cycles is high fuel efficiency, measured through specific impulse, while its main disadvantage is engineering complexity.
Since the founding of SpaceX in 2002, the company has developed four families of rocket engines — Merlin, Kestrel, Draco and SuperDraco — and since 2016 developed the Raptor methane rocket engine and after 2020, a line of methalox thrusters.
The BE-3 is a liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine developed by Blue Origin.
Firefly Aerospace is an American private aerospace firm based in Cedar Park, Texas, that develops small and medium launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit. The current company was formed when the assets of the former company Firefly Space Systems were acquired by EOS Launcher in March 2017, which was then renamed Firefly Aerospace. Firefly's stated purpose is to increase access to space, similar to other private spaceflight companies.
The BE-4 is an oxygen-rich, liquefied-methane-fueled, staged-combustion, rocket engine. It is produced by Blue Origin. BE-4 was developed with private and public funding. The engine produces 2,400 kilonewtons (550,000 lbf) of thrust at sea level.
The SCE-200 is a 2 MN thrust class liquid rocket engine, being developed to power Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) existing LVM3 and upcoming heavy and super heavy-lift launch vehicles. It is being developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) of ISRO, and is expected to have first flight in 2020s.
LandSpace Technology Corporation is a Chinese commercial space launch provider based in Beijing. It was founded in 2015 by Zhang Changwu.
Starship is a two-stage fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. On April 20, 2023, with the first Integrated Flight Test, Starship became the most massive, tallest, and most powerful vehicle ever to fly. SpaceX has developed Starship with the intention of lowering launch costs using economies of scale, aiming to achieve this by reusing both rocket stages by "catching" them with the launch tower's systems, increasing payload mass to orbit, increasing launch frequency, mass-manufacturing the rockets and adapting it to a wide range of space missions. Starship is the latest project in SpaceX's reusable launch system development program and plan to colonize Mars.
Falcon 9 Block 5 is a partially reusable, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth major version of the Falcon 9 family and the third version of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust. It is powered by Merlin 1D engines burning rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen (LOX).
Raptor is a family of rocket engines developed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is the third rocket engine in history designed with a full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) fuel cycle, and the first such engine to power a vehicle in flight. The engine is powered by cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen, a combination known as methalox.
Skyroot Aerospace Private Limited is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer and commercial launch service provider headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. The company was founded by former engineers and scientists from ISRO. Currently it is aiming to develop and launch its own series of small-lift launch vehicles especially crafted for the small satellite market.
AgniKul Cosmos Private Limited is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer and commercial launch service provider based in National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) of IIT Madras, Chennai. The start up aims to develop and launch its own small-lift launch vehicle such as the Agnibaan, capable of placing 100 kg (220 lb) payload into a 700 km (430 mi) orbit.
Space Pioneer, also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., is a Chinese aerospace company developing reusable orbital rocket technology—both launch vehicles and liquid rocket engines—to access the market for low-cost space launch services. The company is aiming to meet launch requirements for both the Chinese national satellite internet project and also the CNSA solicitation for resupply of the Tiangong space station.
Nova is a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle being developed by Stoke Space. Announced in October 2023, Stoke Space plans to use two stages with an expected payload capacity of 5 tons (5,000 kg) to low Earth orbit (LEO), with the first stage performing a return-to-launch-site (RTLS) landing. The company plans to use 7 full-flow staged combustion rocket engines, burning methalox. The second stage will use a hydrolox engine with 30 thrust chambers ringing a regeneratively cooled heatshield, eliminating the need for thermal tiles. A center passive bleed in the second stage aims to create an aerospike engine-like effect for improved efficiency.
