Rendering of the Firefly Elytra vehicle. Photo: Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace looks to be the next space company to go public, filing a registration statement for an initial public offering (IPO) on July 11. The company hasn’t yet announced how many shares will be offered and the price range for the offering. It intends to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol “FLY.” 

Firefly Aerospace operates the small-lift Alpha launch vehicle, and it’s developing the medium-lift launch vehicle Eclipse, working with Northrop Grumman. Earlier this year, the company had a major success with the first commercial successful soft-landing on the Moon, with its Blue Ghost lunar lander.

The Alpha rocket has had successful missions, including the notable VICTUS NOX Tactically Responsive Space mission for the U.S. Space Force in 2023, but has had a number of failures. The latest Alpha launch in late April had an anomaly and lost a satellite for Lockheed Martin.

The company is owned by AE Industrial Partners and led by Jason Kim, former CEO of Millennium Space Systems, who joined the company last year. 

Firefly’s prospectus, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, reports approximately $1.1 billion in backlog as of the end of March, with more than 30 planned launches under contract. The company detailed its growth strategy in the prospectus, with plans to increase its launch cadence and increase the frequency of its space missions, while improving cost structure and unit economics.

Firefly also reported recent financials — $60.8 million in revenue in 2024 with a $231 million net loss. 

In the first quarter of 2025, Firefly grew revenue 570% over the prior year — reporting $55.9 million in revenue. Net loss for Q1 was $60 million.  

The “risk factors” section called attention to the company’s net loss, with Firefly acknowledging the company expects net losses “for the next several years and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.”

The prospectus also disclosed Firefly’s debt, a total of $173.6 million, including $136.1 million under a term loan facility and $37.5 million under finance leases and other obligations. Firefly intends to use a portion of the proceeds from an IPO to repay its borrowings. 

After a dearth of space companies going public in recent years after the SPAC boom of 2021, two space companies in the U.S. have gone public already this year. Voyager Technologies raising $383 million in an IPO in June, and Karman Space & Defense raising over $500 million earlier in the year. Finish satellite imagery provider Iceye is also reportedly exploring an IPO.