This week on Pathfinder, we welcome back Andy Lapsa, cofounder and CEO of Stoke Space. Stoke has made remarkable strides since Andy's last appearance on the show two years ago. They've grown to over 140 employees and developed innovative full-flow staged combustion cycle engines and reusable upper-stage prototypes. Andy shares his insights on the challenges and progress in creating fully reusable launch vehicles, emphasizing the importance of rapid reusability for reducing costs and increasing availability and reliability.

We dive into Andy's background, including his ten years of experience at Blue Origin and his decision to start Stoke Space to accelerate the pace of innovation. We also discuss:

The unique technical approach of Stoke and the architecture of their first launch vehicle, Nova
The strategic decision to focus on second-stage reusability and how it differentiates Stoke from other providers
Thoughts on the current state of launch and the market potential for multiple providers
The importance of manufacturing and scalability in achieving high-frequency launches
Stoke's proprietary software, Fusion, and its role in optimizing operations

And much more...

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro

00:34 - What's changed since our last episode?

03:04 - Why Andy started Stoke?

07:09 - Andy's time at Blue Origin

09:14 - What makes Stoke different from other launch providers?

12:14 - Focusing on 2nd stage launch first

14:47 - Payload capacity

15:53 - Why has it taken so long for SpaceX to work on fully reusable launch capabilities?

18:36 - Is there a market for multiple launch providers?

21:32 - Growth in launch demand

29:04 - Value proposition for working with Stoke

30:25 - Getting to orbit

36:24 - Minimum viable success

37:59 - Product roadmap post-Nova

40:03 - Investor misconceptions about launch

42:21 - The factory is the product?

44:52 - Fusion

53:29 - What keeps Andy up at night?

54:47 - Funding

55:19 - Stoke's big vision

56:12 - Who plays Andy in the movie about Stoke?

• Show notes •

Stoke’s website — https://www.stokespace.com

Stoke’s socials — https://twitter.com/stoke_space

Andy’s socials — https://twitter.com/AndyLapsa

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 19,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world.

Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing five media properties across multiple platforms:

1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern

2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com)

3) Polaris, our weekly policy briefing, publishes weekly on Tuesdays

4) Payload Research, our weekly research and analysis piece, comes out on Wednesdays

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