About Featured Expert: Stoke Space

Stoke Space develops reusable launch-vehicle technologies that are designed to support more frequent and flexible access to orbit. Its work focuses on one of the aerospace industry’s more difficult engineering challenges: developing an orbital rocket in which both the first and second stages can be recovered, returned and prepared for future flight.

The company’s Nova launch vehicle is being developed as a two-stage, medium-lift system with reusable first and upper stages. First-stage recovery is now field-proven within several launch architectures, but returning an upper stage is considerably more complex. After reaching orbital velocity, the vehicle must withstand the intense thermal and structural forces of atmospheric reentry while retaining the control, propulsion and propellant needed to return to Earth and complete a powered landing.

Stoke-Space-logo-Featured-Expert-Aerospace-Technology-MonthlyStoke Space has approached this challenge through an upper-stage design that brings propulsion and thermal protection together within the same vehicle architecture. Its Andromeda engine incorporates an actively cooled metallic heat shield and uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants. Liquid hydrogen is circulated through the heat shield to help manage reentry temperatures, reducing reliance on ceramic tiles or ablative materials that can require inspection, repair or replacement between missions.

The upper-stage engine is designed to operate across multiple phases of flight while remaining integrated within the vehicle’s reentry profile. Deep-throttling and restart capabilities support orbital insertion, in-space maneuvering, deorbit operations and powered landing. The engine’s nozzles are also designed to operate in both vacuum and atmospheric conditions, allowing the same propulsion architecture to support operations in space and during the vehicle’s return.

For Nova’s first stage, Stoke Space is developing a liquid-natural-gas and liquid-oxygen engine based on a full-flow staged-combustion cycle. This advanced propulsion architecture is designed to provide the performance, efficiency and operating margins required for repeated use. Stoke Space completed the engine’s first hot-fire test in 2024 and has continued testing the system at its Moses Lake facility in Washington. The reusable upper stage is also being developed for missions extending beyond payload deployment. Stoke Space identifies potential applications that include orbital maneuvering, satellite repositioning, long-duration operations and the return of assets or cargo from space. Together, these capabilities support a launch architecture intended to provide transportation not only to orbit, but also through and back from space.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Kent, Washington, Stoke Space maintains vertically integrated design, manufacturing, avionics and flight-software operations. Propulsion, structural and vehicle testing are conducted at its private Moses Lake test facility, while Space Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida is being prepared for future Nova operations. To learn more about Stoke Space and its work in reusable launch-vehicle engineering, please click here.

(Editor’s Note: All trademarks mentioned in this article, including company names, product names, and logos, are the property of their respective owners. Use of these trademarks is for informational purposes only and does not imply any endorsement.)

Molly Bakewell Chamberlin
Latest posts by Molly Bakewell Chamberlin (see all)
Tagged