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Firefly, a civil-commercial spaceflight company out of Texas, recently raised over $800 million on Wall Street during its initial public offering. The company’s goal of growing to nearly $700 billion in revenue by going public on NASDAQ took a significant first step.
Previously on WaL, we reported on the booming global space economy and its competitiveness. The industry is estimated to be worth $421 billion dollars.
The journey of Firefly reaching this peak began with bankruptcy in 2016. Then known as Firefly Space Systems, the company furloughed much of its staff after a high-priced investor backed out of the company. Nine years later, under new CEO Jason Kim, the company is experiencing a renaissance. Back in March, the company successfully landed its Blue Ghost mission in the Moon’s Mare Crisium basin.
This mission delivered 10 NASA payloads, which will help researchers learn about the Moon’s surface. This also marked Firefly as the second private company to land on the moon after Intuitive Machines, another aerospace company based out of Texas, did it in 2024.
All this success had Firefly’s shares surging 30% on its first day going public at a stock price set at $60.35 per share. Backed by government contacts given to them by the past administration, it’s perceived as a stable investment in what is still an emerging sector, with a stable cash flow future expansions already lined up.
This comes as the Trump administration is seeking alternatives to Elon Musk’s company SpaceX after the two had a political falling out over the running of DOGE. A press release by the White House stated that the President signed an executive order to streamline regulations and foster a competing commercial space industry. SpaceX flew its Falcon 9 134 times last year, out of 141 US launches.
A predicted pullback
Commercial spaceflight is a new sector on Wall Street and the IPO makes Firefly one of only 4 publicly-traded companies that allow investors to gain exposure to a market that’s predicted to grow rapidly over the next 10 years. Two weeks since the IPO, the share price has fallen to $45.37 when the markets closed on Friday, shrinking the company’s opening day market cap by $2 billion.
The last two weeks have seen the stock stabilize in a series of sideways moves near the lowest end of its range. Veteran investors probably expected the pullback, as the company’s losses are higher than its current revenues, and its total share of global launches is not substantial.
In fact, it’s practically non-existent in a commercial sense. Firefly plans on future missions to the Moon and beyond, with many payloads for NASA planned for 2026 that sent its revenue sky rocketing to $55.9 million from just $8.3 million the year prior.
The stock’s performance will be a good future case study and indicator for future space companies looking to go public. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: The team at Firefly celebrating the launch of its stock. PC: Firefly Aerospace, released.
