It is incredible how many different types of rocket engines are being developed simultaneously for use in space exploration. It’s something that shows, if it was ever needed, that space is where the future of humanity can be found.
Over the past few years, the biggest players in space exploration have started investing heavily in the research and development of new reusable rockets and ships, reducing the cost of each launch. You’ve probably heard of most of the big ones: SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Axiom Space, and the list goes on and on.
For every space company that has accomplished something, there are countless other startups fighting to make their mark in this competitive new world. Among them is a crew called Stoke Space, who managed to do something this month that put them squarely under our spotlight.
Stoke Space is a Seattle-based company that was only founded four years ago. Its main and stated mission is to provide “low-cost, on-demand transportation to, through, and from space” using fully reusable rockets and space vehicles that could be flipped over and sent on new missions with the same frequency that passenger aircraft operate today.
A daring mission, one might say, but one that attracted the attention of the US Space Force, NASA and the National Science Foundation, organizations that have already funded Stoke’s projects to varying degrees.
To get to the point where it can live up to its word, the company is relying on a rocket called Nova. Still in development, it will be a two-stage system that will be completely reusable, making it cheap and fast to market for customers regardless of their nature (how exactly remains to be seen).
Photo: Stoke Space
Nova’s first stage will rely on seven liquefied natural gas (LNG) – liquid oxygen (LOX) engines at launch. When its mission to launch stage 2 into orbit is complete, stage 1 will descend to the launch site or other landing site.
Stage 2, with a fairing on top to carry cargo, should be able to perform unlimited restarts on its engines, meaning it will be able to reach and maneuver between a long list of orbits. She too, when the mission is over, is designed to return to Earth in a controlled manner so that she can fly again on more and more missions.
At the heart of Nova’s Stage 1 booster is a new kind of engine that Stoke is currently developing. It’s a full-flow, stage-fired (FFSC) piece of hardware, a design that can deliver “unmatched efficiency and performance.”
It’s the same kind of operation that SpaceX uses for its Raptor engines. In short, such engines have propellant passing through multiple combustion chambers, which in turn results in higher fuel efficiency compared to other designs and a high specific impulse.
Stoke made headlines this week after announcing the completion of the first fire-heated test of the Nova stage 1 engine. The procedure was carried out last week at the company’s facility in Moses Lake, Washington.
In the test, the power unit was cranked up to its initial power level and went from standstill to generating the equivalent of 350,000 horsepower in less than a second. By comparison, the five Saturn V rocket first-stage engines that powered the Apollo lunar exploration program pushed the equivalent of 160 million horsepower.
Photo: Stoke Space
Once it reached that point, the engine maintained power levels for an undisclosed amount of time and shut down according to test procedures.
The impressive thing about all this isn’t necessarily the hot-fire test or the power generated, but the fact that the engine was put together by Stoke engineers in just a year and a half.
Successful tests build a company “on track to deliver the world’s most robust, fully and rapidly reusable medium lift missile.” It’s unclear when we’ll see the racket in action, as Stoke have never said so publicly.
As for the Nova rocket’s second stage, its ability to take off and land vertically was tested in September of last year, and not much (that we know of) has happened on that front since then.
Stoke will continue to undergo various procedures on the FFSC engine for the remainder of the year while scaling up operations for the first orbital launch.
When fully operational, Nova should be able to perform missions to various orbits on behalf of both civilian and defense customers. We don’t yet have any information on how much Stoke will charge per launch on average.