Stoke Area accomplished proto-qualification of the primary stage of its Nova rocket at its testing website in Moses Lake, Washington, in early June 2026. This milestone paves the way in which for the debut of the medium-lift Nova automobile focused for the top of 2026 from the historic Launch Complicated-14 (LC-14) in Cape Canaveral.
Nova Stage 1
Stoke has accomplished 46 structural verification assessments of its first-stage flight article, along with testing crucial fluid programs, avionics, and floor help programs throughout a three-week interval.
Throughout the marketing campaign, the corporate stuffed each gasoline tanks above the utmost anticipated stress situations and demonstrated automated stress management throughout varied fill ranges.
The stage operated throughout difficult environmental situations, together with hurricane-force winds and lightning, proving its structural and operational robustness.
Final week a thunderstorm rolled via the Moses Lake space, inflicting excessive winds (however no injury) at our check website. Glorious preparation by the native workforce ensured that our Stage 1 construction held quick regardless of wind, rain, and lightning.
pic.twitter.com/Vjyywpbrbl
— Stoke Area (@stoke_space) June 4, 2026
“Greater than only a profitable structural check marketing campaign, the consequence was a broader demonstration that Nova’s {hardware}, software program, floor programs, and operations strategy are maturing collectively,” said the corporate in a June 8 information launch.
“The margin between ‘mild sufficient to fly’ and ‘strong sufficient to outlive’ is slender and proving that margin requires disciplined testing at rising ranges of complexity.”
The Nova automobile includes a 27.1-meter reusable first stage that may use return-to-launch-site (RTLS) or droneship touchdown capabilities for restoration. The stage is powered by seven full-flow staged combustion Zenith engines, fueled by liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LOX), a propellant mixture in any other case referred to as methalox. The automobile can generate 3,110 kN of thrust at liftoff.
The engines have undergone hours of vertical hot-fire testing within the twin cell firing stand on the Moses Lake website. The automobile will obtain its engines within the coming months after which endure additional testing and verification earlier than its eventual departure to Cape Canaveral for closing automobile integration and launch.
Sound
— Stoke Area (@stoke_space) June 2, 2026
on: epic fly-by footage of the continued Zenith engine testing and Stage 1 structural {qualifications} occurring at our check website in Moses Lake. 
Nova Stage 2
The Nova automobile can ship as much as 3,000 kg to low-Earth orbit in a reusable configuration and seven,000 kg when the spacecraft is expended. The automobile may ship 2,500 kg to geostationary switch orbit (GTO) and 1,250 kg to translunar injection (TLI).
The second stage makes use of a single Andromeda 2 engine, able to limitless in-space restarts, fueled by liquid hydrogen (LH2) and LOX. The engine consists of a distributed ring of 24 3D-printed thruster chambers, which wrap across the warmth central defend, which protects the stage on reentry. Along with propelling Nova’s higher stage, Andromeda’s thrusters additionally present angle management and exact maneuvering.
Stoke designed Andromeda 2’s thruster nozzles to function in each the vacuum of house and the environment. The engine has a sea-level mode, which is able to produce a steady plume enlargement throughout propulsive touchdown, whereas the vacuum mode produces a excessive enlargement charge for efficiency in house.
The second stage includes a regeneratively cooled metallic warmth defend, which flows liquid hydrogen via the defend throughout reentry. This makes use of tanks and fluid flows that exist already to feed the engine to actively cool the spacecraft. By combining the actively cooled warmth defend with the higher stage engine, Stoke hopes to cut back the refurbishment required between flights.
Earlier testing of the Nova Stage 2. (Credit score: Stoke Area)
Stoke carried out a hopper check with a prototype of its second stage in 2023, and its first Andromeda 1 engine check was accomplished in February 2024. The second stage flight {hardware} additionally accomplished structural qualification on the Moses Lake website in 2025.
Further Andromeda 2 hot-fires will happen earlier than the engine’s integration with the flight automobile. Additional acceptance testing will probably be accomplished earlier than the second stage is delivered to Florida for full integration with Nova Stage 1 in Stoke’s Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF).
The absolutely assembled automobile will measure 40.2 meters in peak and be 4.2 meters in diameter, with a completely reusable payload fairing offering a 180-degree by 360-degree deployment hemisphere.
Nova’s first mission will probably be to a heliocentric orbit with the automobile expended, to show its capabilities and cut back threat on its debut flight. Later missions will check the restoration of each the primary and second phases.
Rendering of the total second stage (Credit score: Stoke Area)
Launch Complicated-14
Stoke Area acquired LC-14, the launch complicated that delivered the primary American to orbit, in 2023. The corporate refurbished the storied launch complicated inside a 12 months to help its absolutely reusable automobile, with the pad absolutely full in early 2026. Greater than 8,000 kg of concrete from the unique Mercury/Atlas period have been crushed and reused to create roads and structural foundations on the rebuilt Nova website.
The launchpad includes a steel-reinforced flame trench that goes over 9 meters (30 ft) into the bottom. The infrastructure was constructed to include and redirect the rocket’s exhaust, defending the pad’s construction.
The bolstered concrete launch mount has 32 m (105 ft) deep concrete pilings and was designed to react to as much as 5.3 MN (1.2 million lbf) of thrust at liftoff. Subsequent to the launch mount is a virtually 37 m (121 ft) umbilical help construction. The tower will ship energy, gasoline, and information to the rocket whereas it’s on the pad up till launch.
Launch Complicated-14 with Stoke’s flame trench and diverter (Credit score: Stoke Area)
Stoke will transport all parts of the Nova rocket from Washington to the corporate’s Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) in Florida. The elements will probably be positioned horizontally, then mated within the HIF, whereas thorough programs checkouts are additionally carried out. As soon as absolutely assembled, the corporate will roll the automobile to the launchpad earlier than elevating it vertically.
The buildout of infrastructure is fueled by a large capital injection. The corporate has raised over 1.34 billion {dollars}, as of June 2026, beneath Sequence D funding, a determine that may speed up product improvement and enlargement. Stoke, based in 2020 by former SpaceX and Blue Origin workers, goals to offer a lower-cost, on-demand entry to house utilizing its absolutely and quickly reusable launch automobile.
As extra corporations proceed to develop reusable automobiles, the competitors will proceed to develop for the supply of payloads to orbit. In addition to deploying spacecraft, Nova’s second stage will probably be able to rendezvousing, capturing, and repositioning present spacecraft and particles. This expertise is crucial for spaceflight, as orbital particles poses an rising threat for future house missions.
(Lead picture: Nova Stage 1 throughout its proto-qualification in Moses Lake, Washington. Credit score: Stoke Area)
The submit Stoke Area completes Nova Stage 1 structural verification appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.