Stoke Space has announced the first successful hot-fire test of an engine designed for future reusable rockets. The Kent, Washington-based company tested its new full-flow staged combustion rocket engine (FFSC) on June 5 at the company’s test site in Moses Lake, Washington. Photos from the test show the engine kicking up a large pile of sand and rocks when the engine was throttled to half its maximum thrust.

Stoke Space aims to use the new engine technology in its Nova rocket, a launch vehicle designed to be 100% reusable and capable of launching, landing and re-launching in just 24 hours. According to SpaceNews, the company hopes Nova will be ready for orbital test flight in 2025.

“We are incredibly proud of this achievement,” Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa said in a statement. “Our team has worked tirelessly to bring this engine to life in record time. This successful test is a testament to their capabilities and dedication and brings us a big step closer to bringing the Nova launch vehicle to market. Nova will provide unique technology that will enable commercial, civil and defense customers to access space, from and to space.” “He has the skills.”

Stoke’s Nova rocket is being designed to have a reusable payload fairing and a heat shield with active cooling technology, according to the company’s website. The heat shield is integrated into the engine, which runs on liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The company says these design elements are intended to reduce rebuild time between launches by making the Nova “damage-proof.”

In September 2023, Stoke conducted flight tests of a prototype rocket known as Hopper2 to demonstrate the new propulsion and landing system. The company said the tests provided an “incredible amount of data” that will help advance the development of the reusable rocket.

Last year, Stoke Space was one of four companies granted permission to use launch pads at the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as part of the U.S. Space Force’s new Launch Pad Allocation Strategy (LPAS). The space force hopes that opening the facilities to other companies will help maximize launch capacity and “provide a strong industrial base for space launches” for the United States.