Stoke Space puts its test rocket through a successful hop in central Washington state
Stoke Space puts its test rocket through a successful hop in central Washington state
A four-year-old startup called Stoke Space has executed a successful up-and-down test of its "Hopper" developmental rocket vehicle.
STOKE HOPPED!
Stoke is one of my favorite new space companies. I love their giant capsule aerospike 2nd stage thing. This is my favorite among the different concepts for fully reusable rockets. Starship will kill people of a heart attack if the impact doesn't get them. Blue... I'll comment if they ever do anything. But a capsule? I'm here for a giant capsule.
Everyday astronaut did an interview with the founder earlier this year. I had no idea they were so close to getting something flying (even if only 30m off the ground). Fantastic achievement!
Very exciting to see! I wonder why the throttling is so imprecise in this test-hop. I would've assumed that having small nozzles and a compact design like this would make it easier to control. This is all just speculation, ofc. but maybe the engines are made to perform better with heavier loads than this proof of concept design. Hopefully, Everyday astronaut will visit them again one day to ask more questions about all the progress they've made.