(CNN) – Firefly Aerospace was the first private company to stand upright on the moon, and this time it will have another high stakes fall on the stock market.
Firefly shares will begin trading on Nasdaq on Thursday morning under the ticker symbol “Fly.”
Founded in 2017 by Ex-Spacex engineer Tom Markusic, the company reached a valuation of over $6 billion in its first public offering, according to estimates from the Startup Data Aggregator Pitchbook.
Firefly raises more than $868 million, with the stock priced at $45 per copy, according to a news release. Many of these funds could be used to fuel the company’s ambitious next steps, including plans to land the first US spacecraft across the moon soon in 2026.
Firefly plans to debut a spacecraft that has medium-sized rockets in its development pipeline, providing maintenance and allowing other satellites to travel from orbit.
“There is currently so much demand from national security, space exploration and commercial customers, so we want to recharge and accelerate that growth by evaluating our production lines even faster,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim told CNN.
The stock market debut was triggered by the company’s highly-prominent lunar landing in March. Andrew Chanin, CEO of Investor Procuream, said investors appear to have an appetite for IPOs at this time.
“This is like an era where all the planets are in place,” Kim said of the timing of the IPO.
The Firefly Blue Ghost spaceship made history in March with an upright touchdown that was untouched on the surface of the moon.
Its mission, implemented under a $122 million contract on behalf of NASA, was the first in a series that Firefly plans to run over the next few years. This is because the US Space Agency aims to establish a permanent settlement on the moon under the Artemis program.
Moon missions, rockets, space tugs
Firefly hopes to send one of its blue ghost cars across the moon next year. There, only China, the US’s major rival in modern space racing, successfully sent the lander.
The company’s other business lines include Alpha, rockets that have been flying since 2021, and scaling versions of the launch vehicle that Firefly is co-developing with Northrop Grumman, known as the Eclipse. This year, Firefly is planning to debut a “space salient” called Elytra, which can provide in-space services, such as moving satellites between orbits.
“It’s a positive sign that they’re not just focusing on the moon,” Chanin pointed out.
According to Chanin, Firefly rockets in particular could prove to be an attractive asset. Some satellite manufacturers and other space companies overseas are trying to avoid reliance on SpaceX, which has dominated the global launch market for many years, in the wake of the Russian-Ukurein war. The conflict led to an incident in which satellites owned by European companies were effectively trapped in Russian rockets, spurring European countries and businesses.
Space companies have struggled in the open market in the past. Rockets, satellites and other space hardware are very expensive to build and tend to be extremely dangerous to operate.
That’s one of the reasons why some of the most visible leaders of the space industry are billionaires who can self-fund their ambitions. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk famously states that he will not be revealing his company any time soon, as he wants to pursue a strange goal like colonizing Mars while he is free from open market pressure.
However, if the company can wisely use cash inflows, fireflies could be offered well by making public, Chanin pointed out.
“In space companies that can boost prospects or harm, things happen very quickly,” Shanin added, referring to the inevitable and unforeseen development hang-ups and mission failures in a dangerous world of spaceflight.
“We can now bring in cash and build what they’re working on,” Chanin said, “Give us a cushion if the rainy day is a rainy day, which is something they can use to raise funds right now.”
Kim said he intends to pay upfront for Firefly’s victory and struggle to promote trust with investors.
“This company is always open and transparent, even through success and anomalies. I think that helped us get a lot of support and advocacy from the public,” Kim said.
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