Another space exploration IPO takes off into orbit.
Shares of Firefly Aerospace — trading under the ticker symbol FLY — opened at $70 a share Thursday on its debut day on the Nasdaq.
Just last week, Firefly said it had planned to sell 16.2 million shares at a range of $35 to $39. A new regulatory filing on Monday came with a much higher range of $41 to $43. The company ended up raising $868 million from the IPO after selling 19.3 million shares at $45.
The hearty reception follows fellow space exploration play Karman’s (KRMN) impressive start to the public markets this year. Its stock is up around 60% since its February debut.
“This company is not aspirational — it’s operational,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim told me on Yahoo Finance. An electrical engineer, Kim joined Firefly in October 2024 from Boeing’s (BA) satellite segment, Millennium Space Systems.
Firefly is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Its lunar lander Blue Ghost successfully touched down on the surface of the moon in March. The company’s new Eclipse reusable rocket is expected to launch sometime in 2026, joining the already proven Alpha rocket in the portfolio.
Firefly remains an early-stage company, as its prospectus makes clear. The company boasts $1.1 billion in backlog, essentially business that may (or may not) become sales in the future.
It also lists partnerships with Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPAX.PVT), Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, NASA, Northrop Grumman (NOC), and Space Force.
But the business is likely to lose money for the foreseeable future as it builds out technical capabilities and looks to generate profitable demand for its rockets.
For the six months ended June 30, Firefly estimated in its prospectus that it will lose between $95 million and $97 million on an adjusted operating basis. That would be on sales of $70.4 million to $71.4 million.
Firefly posted an adjusted operating loss of $190.6 million in 2024, up from a $123.9 million loss in 2023.
Join top investors and newsmakers at Yahoo Finance Invest on November 12–13 in NYC as they discuss the agenda for success in 2026. Register to attend today.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
Click here for the latest technology news that will impact the stock market
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
