Firefly Aerospace has shot right up to its peers in in the commercial space CisLunar sector, excelling itself with an end-to-end Lunar Value Chain of launch, lunar landing, and in-space services.
They are based in the USA (Texas) and in August did the IPO shuffle onto the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “FLY”, joining Intuitive Machine (USA) and iSpace (Japan).
Firefly Missions: From Orbit to the Moon
Firefly Aerospace missions step up from small- and medium-lift launch services to lunar exploration; they can rightfully claim: “Firefly became the first commercial company to successfully land on the Moon!”. Straight off their website (August 2025).
Their flagship launch vehicle is the Alpha rocket, a large all-carbon-fiber liquid-fueled rocket, hurling up to 1,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit at a competitive cost. No surprises, Firefly set a national security record by launching a U.S. government payload on a little more than 24 hours’ notice. They are also co-developing a larger a partially reusable rocket, the Eclipse, with Northrop Grumman, designed to position a whopping over 16,000 kilograms to orbit.
The real cherry on the Space Sundae is of course the their Blue Ghost lunar lander. Now it is a key part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, so a paid public customer was part of the deal. Notably Firefly became the first commercial company to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon in March of 2025, delivering a diverse range of NASA payloads.
From an exploration and business perspective, their Blue Ghost Mission 1 was a terrific validation of their technology and the ability to execute complex space operations. From zero to hero, you could say. Firefly was then awarded additional CLPS contracts, (including a $176.7 million award for its fifth CLPS mission), to deliver two rovers and scientific instruments to the Moon’s south pole in 2029.
Follow the Money: Funding and Investors
Firefly’s upward trajectory was helped by a series of funding rounds. They raised a total of $589 million over 11 funding rounds. Key investors include AE Industrial Partners (which hold a substantial pre-IPO stake), RPM Ventures, GiantLeap, and Mitsui & Co. Northrop Grumman also invested $50 million.
August 8th they conducted an (IPO, raising $868 million and securing a valuation of over $8 billion.