[2] In May 2020, the company won a $225,000 SBIR Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation to work on an integrated propulsion solution for reusable rocket upper stages.

[2] In December 2021, the company raised $65 million in a Series A round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures,[4] funding development and testing of the upper stage of a reusable launch vehicle.

In 2023, Stoke Space had an interview with Tim Dodd (also known as The Everyday Astronaut), wherein the CEO Andy Lapsa revealed their plan to create a fully and rapidly reusable orbital rocket.

[12] The first successful hot fire of Stoke Space's Full Flow Staged Combustion (FFSC) Engine named Zenith was reported in June 2024.

The second stage will use a hydrolox (liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen) engine with 24 thrust chambers ringing a regeneratively cooled heatshield,[18] eliminating the need for thermal tiles.