A exemplary of the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander during the company's archetypal nationalist offering astatine the Nasdaq MarketSite successful New York, US, connected Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Firefly Aerospace shares sank much than 24% aft its rocket exploded during a trial formation connected Monday.
The detonation occurred during a first-stage trial formation of satellite-launching Alpha Flight 7 rocket astatine its installation successful Briggs, Texas, Firefly wrote successful an update.
"Proper information protocols were followed, and each unit are safe," Firefly wrote. "The institution is assessing the interaction to its signifier trial stand, and nary different facilities were impacted."
The eight-year-old space technology institution competes successful an progressively crowded abstraction dominated by billionaire-backed ventures specified arsenic Elon Musk's SpaceX for deals with NASA and salient authorities contractors.
Appetite is strong. Over the years, Firefly has partnered with NASA, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris Technologies. It precocious won a $177 cardinal contract with NASA and a $50 million investment from Northrop Grumman.
At the clip of its archetypal nationalist offering past month, Firefly was the 3rd important abstraction exertion to debut successful 2025 aft Voyager Technologies and Karman Holdings.
High capitalist involvement led to an upsized offering, with an archetypal stock merchantability raising $868 cardinal astatine a $6.3 cardinal valuation. Shares surged 34% connected opening day to adjacent astatine much than $60. The banal has since pulled backmost 50%.
"It's each astir execution," CEO Jason Kim told CNBC's "Squawk Box" connected IPO day.
He said the institution is laser-focused connected its Alpha rockets to conscionable heightened commercialized and nationalist information demands.
Firefly makes rockets, abstraction tugs and lunar landers. Earlier this year, its Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully landed connected the moon.
Rocket tests successful the sector, historically, haven't ever been a creaseless ride. Firefly's sixth rocket failed successful April. SpaceX has besides suffered mishaps, including a motorboat pad detonation this summer.
"We larn from each trial to amended our designs and physique a much reliable system," Firefly wrote successful its ngo update.
Firefly 1 period banal chart.
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