The Social Radars Founder Mode: Andy Lapsa, Founder & CEO, Stoke Space
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Sep 29, 2025 Andy Lapsa, Founder and CEO of Stoke Space, is revolutionizing space travel with fully reusable rockets. He discusses the mission to make space transportation as routine as air travel, emphasizing the cost savings and efficiency of reusability. Andy shares insights into the company's growth, his journey since founding in 2019, and how reusing rocket stages has transformed flight rates. He also delves into the balance between opportunism and focus for founders, highlighting the importance of ownership and urgency in startup success.
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Reusability Enables Routine Space Mobility
- Stoke Space builds fully reusable rockets to make space transportation a natural extension of other mobility solutions.
- Andy Lapsa believes availability and price are key to enabling new space applications like routine cargo and satellite transport.
Second Stage Reuse Is The Next Big Shift
- Reusing rocket stages dramatically cuts cost by amortizing expensive assets across many flights.
- Andy explains that current second-stage discard keeps launch frequency and costs limited by production capacity.
Costs Come From Vehicles And Infrastructure
- Major launch cost drivers are vehicle cost and the supporting infrastructure like factories and test facilities.
- Flying more often spreads fixed costs and reduces unit price if the hardware is reusable.