Stoke stated that it has been awarded a $4.5 million contract by the Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) to develop a prototype system that will allow for accurate and timely point-to-point cargo delivery into, through, and out of space.
Stoke received the money under the DIU’s Novel Responsive Space Delivery (NRSD) project, which aims to provide funding for the development of accurate and responsive point-to-point commercial solutions for delivery to orbit, between orbiting vehicles, and to specific places on Earth. With this award, Stoke’s architecture and design may be easily modified to create a dual-purpose system that transmits Defence effects directly from Earth to orbit and from orbit to the surface of the Earth.
Co-founder and CEO of Stoke, Andy Lapsa, expressed his excitement at receiving the investment from DIU. “With a responsive and adaptable platform, our reusable upper stage technology represents a significant leap forward in improving launch costs and launch availability.” Additionally, it offers whole new capabilities, like the capacity to transport vital payloads across space or bring them back to Earth. We are eager to work with the DIU to advance our capacities in order to address demands related to national security and defence.
Stoke is creating a two-stage launch vehicle that can be reused quickly and completely, with the goal of significantly reducing the cost and frequency of delivering payloads to low Earth orbit. Stoke’s innovative reusable upper stage vehicle makes use of a cutting-edge liquid rocket engine that was created internally and has an integrated liquid-cooled metallic heat shield for robust and reusable re-entry thermal protection. These and other features are designed for minimal refurbishment between flights, enabling an unprecedented, ultra-high flight cadence.
