Andy Lapsa

Andy Lapsa is the co-founder and CEO of Stoke Space Technologies, a company focused on sustainably scaling the space economy. He began his career at Blue Origin, developing the BE-4 engine before leading the BE-3 and BE-3U engine programs. Seeking faster progress toward fully reusable launch systems, Lapsa co-founded Stoke in 2019 with Tom Feldman. Stoke is developing the world’s most efficient fully reusable rocket to provide low-cost, on-demand access to and from space. It has made significant strides toward this end, including the successful test firing of its full-flow, stage-combustion rocket engine. This engine, which uses an ambitious approach to produce the highest-efficiency rocket engine possible, delivers over 100,000 pounds of thrust to power the first stage of Stoke’s fully reusable medium launch vehicle. Last year, Stoke successfully conducted a vertical takeoff and landing test flight of its fully reusable second stage, demonstrating its novel hydrogen/oxygen engine, heat shield, and thrust vector control system. Stoke has raised over $175 million from prominent investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Toyota Ventures, University of Michigan, YCombinator.Lapsa holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan and a BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.