{"id":17153,"date":"2024-12-13T00:07:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T16:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/stoke-space-hotfires-rocket-engine-on-new-vertical-test-stand-a-very-big-deal-for-washington-startup\/"},"modified":"2024-12-13T00:07:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T16:07:31","slug":"stoke-space-hotfires-rocket-engine-on-new-vertical-test-stand-a-very-big-deal-for-washington-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/stoke-space-hotfires-rocket-engine-on-new-vertical-test-stand-a-very-big-deal-for-washington-startup\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoke Space hotfires rocket engine on new vertical test stand \u2014 a \u2018very big deal\u2019 for Washington startup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Stoke Space rocket engine test lights up a vertical test stand in Moses Lake, Wash. (Stoke Space Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stoke Space successfully hotfired its first-stage rocket engine on a new vertical test stand at the company\u2019s Moses Lake, Wash., facility on Wednesday in what was called \u201ca very big deal\u201d for the 4-year-old startup.<\/p>\n

The company released dramatic photographs of the test in action, posting on X that it was an \u201cincredible team effort.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kent, Wash.-based Stoke Space has been on a quest to build a new breed of fully reusable rockets and space vehicles that it says will be designed to operate with \u201caircraft-like frequency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The startup was founded in 2019 by CEO Andy Lapsa, a veteran of Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture, and Tom Feldman, who worked at Blue Origin after interning at SpaceX.<\/p>\n

Stoke Space called the test significant for several reasons. It\u2019s the first hotfire of the company\u2019s Block 2 (flight layout) stage 1 engine, and this engine architecture \u2014 called full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) \u2014 is considered particularly challenging. Only two entities in the world \u2014 Stoke and SpaceX \u2014 have successfully developed FFSC engines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very big deal to be able to test this full-flow staged combustion engine in its flight (vertical) orientation,\u201d Feldman, Stoke\u2019s CTO, said in a statement to GeekWire. \u201cThis test represents the culmination of some very hard work across many different teams at Stoke, and will serve as the basis for much learning to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another view of the Stoke Space engine test on Thursday in Moses Lake, Wash. (Stoke Space Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stoke\u2019s stage 1 engine is a liquified natural gas\/liquid oxygen engine capable of producing 100,000 pounds of thrust. The duration of the test was not revealed.<\/p>\n

It was the first time Stoke has tested on its new vertical test stand in Moses Lake. The company\u2019s testing philosophy is that you must \u201ctest like you fly,\u201d and it believes vertical testing is key to engine development.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t test an engine without a test stand, and this one\u2019s a beauty,\u201d Lapsa said on X after Wednesday\u2019s test. \u201cGorgeous clean burn using all the flows!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lapsa is being honored Thursday night at the GeekWire Gala in Seattle as one of this year\u2019s five \u201cUncommon Thinkers,\u201d in recognition of inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs transforming industries and driving positive change in the world.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the Stoke raised $100 million and showcased a successful up-and-down test of its \u201cHopper\u201d developmental rocket vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Stoke Space rocket engine test lights up a vertical test stand in Moses Lake, Wash. (Stoke Space Photo) Stoke Space successfully hotfired its first-stage rocket engine on a new vertical test stand at the company\u2019s Moses Lake, Wash., facility on Wednesday in what was called \u201ca very big deal\u201d for the 4-year-old startup. The company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4462,4329,345],"class_list":["post-17153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-andy-lapsa","tag-startups","tag-stoke-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}