Stoke Space raises $1 billion, targets early 2027 debut for reusable Nova rocket

By the Everything Space news desk · 08 Sep 2026 · written from the sources below

Image: Space.com

The fresh capital funds both a first orbital launch vehicle and a larger successor aimed at competing with SpaceX and Rocket Lab for satellite constellation business.

Stoke Space has closed a $1 billion Series E funding round, pushing its total investment haul to $2.3 billion, and detailed how it plans to use the money to advance two rocket programs.

The company's first orbital vehicle, called Nova Pathfinder, is designed for full and rapid reusability and is now targeting an initial launch in early 2027 carrying a customer payload. Its first stage uses seven of Stoke's own full-flow staged-combustion engines running on liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas, a propulsion cycle the company describes as especially difficult to develop but advantageous for reducing between-flight maintenance.

Pathfinder's upper stage takes an unusual approach to reentry, using an actively cooled metal heat shield instead of traditional ceramic tiles, paired with a ring of small engines around its base rather than a single large engine. Stoke previously flight-tested a scaled version of this upper-stage system in a short hop.

Alongside Pathfinder, Stoke is developing a larger vehicle called Nova Block 2, capable of carrying up to 15 tons to low Earth orbit. Block 2 will use 14 of the same engines on its first stage and a redesigned, more powerful upper stage with a wider fairing to support bigger satellite constellations. Its debut launch is targeted for 2029.

Stoke positions Block 2 as a rival to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Rocket Lab's in-development Neutron rocket, noting that SpaceX has signaled it will eventually wind down Falcon 9 as Starship matures, potentially opening market space around the time Block 2 would enter service.

The new funding will also pay for physical infrastructure, including a major expansion of Stoke's Moses Lake test site in Washington and continued buildout at its Cape Canaveral launch complex, plus an offshore recovery platform meant to support full reusability. Stoke says it intends to keep Pathfinder flying even after Block 2 reaches the pad, arguing each vehicle suits different missions.

Written in Everything Space’s own words by our news-desk model from the sources above, and checked against them in code: every number in this report appears in its sources, and no sentence is copied from them.