EXCLUSIVE: @AndyLapsa, CEO of @stoke_space, joins VALLEY OF DEPTH for his first sit-down since the company's $1B raise and the unveiling of its new 15T to LEO Nova Block 2 launch vehicle. Stoke is a launch company building Nova, a two-stage rocket designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, with an upper stage that uses a hydrogen-cooled metallic heat shield and a first stage powered by a full-flow staged combustion engine called Zenith. Highlights: 01:04 – New developments at Stoke 02:16 – The Nova product family 08:19 – Meeting with Jared Isaacman 09:48 – $1B fundraise, use of proceeds 12:12 – Future production capacity 13:44 – Was this the last private funding round for Stoke? 23:46 – Why are rockets still so hard? 26:17 – Why build a full-flow staged combustion for your first stage? 29:14 – Technical hurdles that are left to solve 35:05 – Stoke's heat shield vs ceramic heat shields 39:51 – The state of the launch industry. Are we screwed in the short term? 49:00 – A payload agnostic future 51:36 – The application layer for Block 2 1:01:20 – What keeps Andy up at night? 1:02:29 – What happens after mission success? 1:06:31 – When should we expect the first flight of Block 2? Full episode 👇

VALLEY OF DEPTH: @AntaresNuclear announced a $470M Series C two days ago. We had a chance to chat with CEO @jordanbramble that same day about the round, his Oval Office visit with President Trump, and what comes after criticality. Antares is building microreactors for defense and space: designing, manufacturing, and fielding factory-built fission power for missions that can't afford to lose power. Chapters: 00:54 – Jordan at the White House 02:57 – What does criticality mean? 08:48 – What the fundraise will allow Antares to do 09:58 – How did Antares get to criticality first? 12:55 – How the government's approach to nuclear has changed 15:25 – How small modular reactors fit in the nuclear tech landscape 19:02 – Space-based civilian use cases for nuclear 20:57 – Antares's approach to fuel availability and supply chains 25:56 – Electricity in 2027 27:14 – Regulatory hurdles 31:33 – The road to 30 reactors a month 33:22 – The data center opportunity 37:22 – Is it just a coincidence that 4 companies reached criticality by the July 4th deadline? 39:48 – How would an investor know if a nuclear company is on the right path? 43:09 – What would Jordan have done differently with Antares if he could start over? Full episode 👇

VALLEY OF DEPTH: @IanCinnamon, CEO of @Apex_Satellites on the origin of the company. "Building the physical satellite that we do here at Apex is pretty freaking hard. And the reason it's hard is satellites are these bespoke exquisite systems that are basically redesigned around a specific payload every time... And if you're redesigning that every time, that's all this new nonrecurring engineering. It's really slow. So my idea was like very, you know, I would argue naive at the time. I was like, why can't we just do it like a software company where engineers design a set product and then we go have a production line, go build the same thing over and over again at scale."

Can companies responsibly build a business model around Starship? .@_Eric_Romo, President & COO of @GoToImpulse doesn't think so. "Why would you (@SpaceX) sell a thing you don’t have enough of for yourself, at a bargain-basement price, to your competitors? The logic just doesn’t hold anywhere there. And it’s just sort of the wishful thinking of, “Well, because I want it,” that these companies say they’re going to get this at a low price. And the reality is, in the market, this is the same thing that happened with Falcon 9."

This week on Valley of Depth: @_Eric_Romo, President & COO of @GoToImpulse joins the show to discuss the past, present and future of the company. Impulse is building the next major infrastructure layer in space: moving payloads once they’re already in space (to GEO, the Moon, and other high-energy destinations). 00:34 – The journey to Impulse 09:02 – Is Musk focused on Mars or data centers now? 13:57 – Reuniting with Tom 19:35 – The vision of Impulse 21:20 – Impulse's product set & the pivot to GEO 38:32 – Mira, the most maneuverable spacecraft in orbit 40:24 – Why does the government care about maneuverable satellites? 41:40 – Competitors and how to win the maneuverability race 44:41 – How exposed are GEO assets today? 53:17 – How Starship will fundamentally change the industry 59:18 – The opportunity for SpaceX competitors 1:03:06 – If Starship solves orbital refueling, will they become a competitive concern for Impulse? 1:04:52 – The $500M fundraise 1:06:17 – Impulse's existing capital needs, future fundraising, and will they go public? 1:10:23 – Biggest source of internal debate 1:12:31 – Overrated and underrated space technologies 1:15:13 – What Eric would say to his 23-year-old self at SpaceX Full episode 👇