Stoke Space: $1B raise, Nova Block 2 unveiled
- The thread: Stoke raises $1B and announces Nova Block 2 — 15t to LEO, fully reusable, Falcon 9-class (Reuters w/ CEO Lapsa; NSF). Constellation replenishment is the stated demand. Stoke is also the LC-16 (Cape) tenant in the Starship cadence thread's pad race.
- 2026-09-08: opened from the space digest. Announcement-stage; no hardware timeline in our capture.
- Watch for: Block 2 hardware timeline, first Nova flight, LC-16 schedule firming.
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2026-09-22: the watch item moves — "Stoke's updated manifest for the Nova Pathfinder launch is out" (AstroForge amplification; Foust RT ~11:51 AM ET): first public manifest for the debut Nova flight, eight days post-raise. Details thin in capture (manifest contents unverified) — the timeline-firming this thread opened for. Adjacent same-day: AstroForge — "next year... a spacecraft that will be given zero commands" (autonomous asteroid- prospecting claim, ledgered).
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2026-10-14 (build-to-test movement, ~11:32 AM ET): Stoke says Stage 2 has officially left the rocket factory "for the last time" and is now in Moses Lake, WA for cryo-proof testing and a hotfire campaign with its Andromeda engine, ahead of shipment to the Cape Canaveral launch site (Stoke via NSF RT). Development: the Nova program moves from factory to test; the LC-16 Cape-tenant positioning on file gains its vehicle-movement layer. Watch: Moses Lake test outcomes, Cape shipment timing. https://x.com/NASASpaceflight/status/2110394544051327183