The countdown to launch has begun for a small Washington state company developing something long dreamed of in the space industry.

Andy Lapsa, co-founder and CEO of Stoke Space, a standout in the state's burgeoning space technology industry, calls it "this Holy Grail of rocketry, which is fully, rapidly reusable rockets."

At Stoke's newly built headquarters in Kent, engineers and technicians are assembling the giant barrel-shaped sections of a rocket and two very different engines designed to make not just the booster but the upper stage of the spacecraft reusable.

The goal is a rocket capable of launching into orbit, returning to Earth and then lifting off again almost daily.