Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital Signs $150 Million Conditional Loan Commitment with Stoke Space for Second Cape Canaveral Launchpad
The U.S. Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) announced on October 26 that it has signed a $150 million conditional loan commitment with Stoke Space Technologies, Inc. to support construction of a second launchpad at the company's existing launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, expanding U.S. space launch capacity.
Stoke Space is a U.S. space launch company developing fully reusable rockets, aiming to provide low-cost, high-cadence access to orbit. Under the plan, the proposed loan would be combined with private capital to support the buildout of the second launchpad.
The Department of War said the financing is intended to expand U.S. launch capacity needed to meet the U.S. Space Force's rising commercial and national-security launch demand, and that space launch is a designated critical technology area. Stoke Space's existing complex currently supports its Nova Pathfinder medium-lift rocket.
The new second launchpad would support the larger Nova Block 2 rocket now in development. The Department also noted that the conditional commitment is only a first step: before financial close, the loan must still satisfy financial, legal, technical, investment, and due-diligence requirements.
OSC Director David A. Lorch said the investment aligns with President Trump's National Space Transportation Policy, which calls for expanded U.S. launch infrastructure to strengthen American access to space.
Jordan Sebold, OSC Senior Managing Director for Investments, said the loan would let Stoke Space efficiently scale its Cape Canaveral infrastructure and enhance the capacity and resilience of the commercial space industrial base.
Emil Michael, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, said fulfilling the mandate for American space superiority requires scaling commercial launch capacity, and that the financing helps maintain American dominance in the cislunar domain.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: SpaceX / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)，资料图
