QuesTek Innovations Delivers Breakthrough Burn-Resistant Alloy for Stoke Space's Reusable Rocket Engines
EVANSTON, Ill., April 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- QuesTek Innovations has successfully developed a novel nickel-based superalloy designed for additive manufacturing and extreme aerospace environments, marking a critical milestone in its collaboration with Stoke Space, a pioneering OEM developing reusable rockets designed to fly daily. The mission: enable high-performance, fully reusable launch systems with dramatically lower cost and higher launch frequency.
The alloy — engineered to withstand high-pressure, high-temperature oxygen environments — has been fully qualified and meets all performance targets. This alloy is critical for Stoke Space's cutting-edge Zenith engine, which operates using a full-flow staged combustion cycle — a high-efficiency system that demands materials capable of withstanding extreme combustion environments where conventional alloys would catastrophically fail.
QuesTek, which was recently named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2025 "for making the materials that power space exploration," designed the alloy using their ICMD® digital materials design and engineering platform. The use of ICMD® enabled rapid optimization of composition and processing within months — a process that traditionally would take years, if not decades.
"The development of this printable, burn-resistant alloy is an absolute requirement for Stoke Space to achieve its mission of building reusable rockets that fly daily," said Jason Sebastian, Executive Vice President of QuesTek. "It's not an overstatement to say that this type of milestone can change the world. Once this hurdle is removed, I don't see a limit to the growth potential for the space industry."
Enabling the Future of Space Access
The nickel-based superalloys QuesTek has developed for Stoke Space are production-printable via additive manufacturing, which enables complex geometries and cooling channels that would not be possible with traditional manufacturing. Leveraging printability also allows for rapid implementation of design changes without the lead time and expense of producing new tooling.
"The material compositions commonly used to increase strength often reduce printability and burn resistance," said Bill Mahoney, Chief Operating Officer at QuesTek. "QuesTek technology helps clients find their sweet spot where all three critical properties coexist — something that would take traditional metallurgy approaches decades to develop. We achieved it in just months."
The breakthrough achieved by Stoke Space and QuesTek collaboration sets a new benchmark for materials performance in spaceflight and opens the door for space companies pursuing innovative, cost-effective launch technologies. As the industry continues to push toward higher performance and greater reusability, the ability to rapidly design and qualify advanced materials tailored for extreme environments will be a key enabler. In its partnership with Stoke Space, QuesTek has shown what's possible when digital materials design meets next-generation aerospace needs — and it's only the beginning. From propulsion systems to thermal protection and structural components, and to micro-power systems, QuesTek's Materials by Design® and ICMD® technologies can help unlock new solutions across the space sector, accelerating the path to routine, affordable access to orbit and beyond.
About QuesTek
QuesTek's Materials by Design® and ICMD® technologies are proven to reduce the development time and cost and increase the performance of novel materials. In its market space, QuesTek is the first and only provider to execute the full cycle from novel design to production, certification, and flight operations with proprietary materials, in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional, or purely algorithmic methods. QuesTek.com
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SOURCE QuesTek Innovations