Stoke Space Just Completed Its First Vehicle Flight

Stoke Space just completed one of the most significant tests in the company’s relatively short history. After a lot of testing and preparation, the Hopper test vehicle known as Hopper2, lifted off for around 15 seconds before landing back on the ground. Despite how short the test was it demonstrated some crucial systems including the engine design along with the heat shield and other core components. Stoke Space is taking a very unique approach to spaceflight and this specific hopper test article is the upper stage of a bigger vehicle. Similar to how SpaceX began with hops of Starhopper before moving on to 10km flights and eventually full launches. With this test now complete, teams at Stoke will no doubt be looking at all the data gathered in order to improve and continue innovating the system. While this test was successful, the rocket’s design is ambitious and will take a lot more work and testing before we see full launches and especially payloads in orbit. Here I will go more in-depth into