Firefly Space is taking its orbital ambitions to the public markets. The company, which notched a string of successes this year, including a historic commercial Moon landing, submitted its formal declaration to regulators Friday detailing its plans to IPO sometime this year.
The S-1 document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange provides a wide-ranging look into the company’s finances and governance plans, though the number of shares to be offered and their price range has not been disclosed. This means the the final valuation is still to be determined.
Firefly is heading into the Initial Public Offering with $176.9 million in cash and cash equivalents. And while it has incurred negative cash flows and losses from operations, Firefly projected that its cash is adequate to meet its liquidity needs for at least 12 months. The company does have a lot of debt: about $173.6 million, including a $136.1 million term loan with a 13.87% interest rate. The net proceeds from the IPO will be used in part to repay that outstanding borrowing, according to the S-1.
Firefly reportedly scored $55.8 million in revenue as of March 31, up from just $8.3 million for the same period in 2024. The majority of that — around $50 million — is from “spacecraft solutions,” or its Blue Ghost lander missions, and just $5 million from launch. But hardware is an expensive endeavor, and Firefly is still burning a lot of money: the cost of sales, or incurred expenses, was nearly as much as revenue: about $53 million as of March 31, leaving just $2.2 million in gross profit.
The company operated at a net loss of $231.1 million for the 2024 fiscal year, up from $135.5 million in 2023. Its net losses at the end of the first quarter were $60.1 million. Yet the company tells prospective …