Reusable rocket maker Stoke Space secures $1 billion round

Stoke Space Technologies, Inc. closed an initial tranche of its $1 billion Series E financing round in Kent, Washington, on September 8, 2026, to expand manufacturing infrastructure and accelerate the development of rapid-turnaround orbital rockets. The injection raises total funding to $2.3 billion as the aerospace firm advances toward an initial orbital launch and accelerates work on its larger Nova Block 2 launch vehicle.

Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital jointly led the investment round, drawing backing from General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovation Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, Y Combinator, and additional backers.

Stoke pursues an essential opening in space transportation by making operations fully reusable, dependable, and scalable, according to Point72 Ventures partner Chris Morales. “Having supported Stoke through multiple stages of its growth, we believe this company has demonstrated both the exceptional technical progress and the ambition to build a launch system capable of serving the market at industrial scale,” Morales stated. Morales confirmed that the firm stands behind Stoke as the rocket maker shifts toward flight testing and high-frequency operations.

“Every mature transportation system is built around fully reusable vehicles,” stated Stoke co-founder and CEO Andy Lapsa, affirming that full reuse represents the single route to bottom-tier operating costs and broad access. Lapsa stated that customer trust underpins this capital raise, which allows the enterprise to build out delivery capacity.

The fresh capital funds core reuse technologies, test platforms, manufacturing facilities, and retrieval assets designed for recurring missions. Nova Pathfinder nears its maiden flight. This demonstrator will deliver cargo into orbit to evaluate core airframe design, operational resilience, and stage retrieval systems under flight conditions. Stoke schedules the initial orbital launch of Pathfinder for early 2027.

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Commercial and institutional launch customers continue to request larger payload capacities alongside increased flight frequency, prompting an expansion in the corporate development roadmap. Engineers are constructing the higher-capacity Nova Block 2, a vehicle designed to lift 15 metric tons to low Earth orbit within a 5-meter payload fairing using hardware tested on Pathfinder. The company set the maiden launch of Nova Block 2 for 2029, preceding an acceleration in manufacturing throughput.

Spark Capital general partner Clay Fisher stated that complete reusability provides an order-of-magnitude financial edge over partially expendable rocket systems. “Stoke had the right thesis seven years ago and has paired that prescient vision with a blistering pace of execution,” Fisher said regarding the company’s position in commercial space.

The company outlined its architectural progression and vehicle staging approach in an engineering roadmap linking Nova Pathfinder to the operational Nova system.

“Nova Pathfinder is how we turn the promise of Nova into flight-proven capability,” Lapsa explained. The chief executive stated that orbital trials minimize program risk while validating complex components under real flight environments. Lapsa noted that Nova Block 2 expands those findings to fulfill demand for heavier tonnage and frequent launches. He added that the capital facilitates immediate development to place payloads into diverse orbits.

Stoke engineers vehicles for on-demand space transportation and fast turnaround intervals to decrease launch pricing significantly, developing proprietary flight technology backed directly by NASA, the U.S. Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit, the National Science Foundation, and associated public and private partners. The operational architecture focuses on expanding the spectrum of mission profiles supported by high-frequency flights.