ROCKET REPORT: Stoke ships second stage for testing.

The reusable upper stage for Stoke Space’s Nova rocket has left the company’s factory in Kent, Washington, for what would be the last time, Stoke wrote on X this week. Now at Stoke’s test facility in Moses Lake, the second stage will undergo cryo-proof testing and a hotfire campaign with its Andromeda engine. The milestone follows the completion of “proto-qualification” testing on Nova’s first stage earlier this year. Nova’s booster section is a rather conventional reusable first stage, but the upper stage is what sets the rocket apart. Stoke designed Nova for full reusability, with the upper stage protected by a regeneratively cooled heat shield and powered by a ring of 24 thrusters, an engine collectively named Andromeda.

Next stop, Cape Canaveral … The upcoming tests at Moses Lake will be a linchpin for Stoke’s ambition to launch the Nova rocket next year. If all goes according to plan, Stoke will ship the reusable rocket stage to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it will meet the other elements of the rocket for final launch preparations. The medium-lift Nova is the only fully reusable Western rocket other than SpaceX’s Starship in an advanced stage of development.

Godspeed…