Stoke Space and NASA partner to scale reusable launch and re-entry

We are excited to announce that NASA has selected Stoke Space for a new partnership to advance upper stage re-entry capabilities of Nova, our fully reusable launch vehicle. The partnership comes via NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under an Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity designed to advance U.S. space technology innovation and scale a competitive space economy.

Nova is Stoke’s fully and rapidly reusable medium-lift rocket, designed to provide responsive transportation to, through, and from space. Unlike industry-standard expendable upper stages, our upper stage is designed to return from orbit and be rapidly reused – unlocking new futures for orbital research and innovation.

Stoke and NASA will collaborate on entry, descent, and landing (EDL) technologies for reusable second stage architecture. We’ll leverage NASA Ames’s hypervelocity free-flight test capabilities, along with the agency’s world-class aerodynamics and guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) expertise to further mature how Nova vehicles will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.  

This capability is just as significant for the future of in-space innovation as it is for our rockets. Emerging markets, like microgravity manufacturing, require reliable downmass earthside just as much as affordable launch upmass. Nova’s reusable upper stage will help make routine microgravity operations and return from space practical, consistent, and at scale.  

We’re excited and proud to partner with NASA again. We received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award in 2020 to develop a novel rocket engine configuration that resulted in the Stage 2 Andromeda integrated engine and regeneratively cooled re-entry heat shield. The next step of this partnership enables us to close the loop required for fully reusable launch, routine Earth return, and the dynamic commercial space economy that our nation demands.