It took Firefly Aerospace one trading day to experience the full IPO life cycle: hype, vertical launch, and a sharp reminder that gravity always wins.

(Source: Giphy) 

The Cedar Park, Texas–based rocket and lunar lander maker went public Thursday under the criminally unclaimed ticker FLY, raising $868 million at an $8.5 billion valuation. Shares priced at $45, opened at $70, and closed at $60.35… up 34% in a single session. Friday morning? Down almost 17%, as the thrill-seekers cashed out and the bagholders took the controls. Translation: This is what passes for “healthy IPO activity” in 2025. A space-tech company pops big on debut, drops hard the next day, and still somehow claims victory because at least it isn’t a fintech trying to sell digital coins to people in Dubuque.

(Source: CNBC) 

With that said, what is Firefly, and why did they even go full-scorched Earth in the first place? Well, Firefly makes Alpha rockets and the Blue Ghost lunar lander… a.k.a. The same one that actually touched down on the moon for NASA earlier this year. It’s also got contracts with Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, and Northrop Grumman (who tossed them $50M last month). Their backlog is $1.1B, revenue just jumped sixfold to $55.9M, and losses widened to $60.1M because, shockingly, building rockets that can survive hypersonic missile testing isn’t a low-cost side hustle.

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

Naturally, CEO Jason Kim is leaning hard into the defense angle, telling CNBC there’s “so much demand for dedicated one-ton launches” from both national security and commercial customers. Spoiler: there’s a very real chance a chunk of our tax bill is headed to Cedar Park for Kim to snort. And understandably so. Simply put, space is back on the IPO menu. 

For instance, Firefly’s the third space company to go public this year, following Voyager Technologies and Karman Holdings, as investors rediscover their appetite for hardware that actually leaves the atmosphere. Some may look at it as a SpaceX knockoff… until they realize it’s a growing class of billion-dollar space startups with legitimate government pipelines. 

(Source: Giphy) 

With that said, while Thursday’s debut was thicc and juicy on the 2025 IPO pop trend (with median first-day gains for $100M+ deals are over 18%, per Renaissance Capital)... the next-day drop shows how thin the conviction still is. Investors want space exposure, but they don’t want to be left holding shares in a loss-making defense contractor if risk-off sentiment returns.

Meaning, the irony is that Firefly’s IPO ticker, FLY, might be more aspirational than descriptive. Of course, we may see the pop continue next week, but given how quick it took for investors to satisfy their cravings and yeet Firefly -17% the very next day should heed some kind of warning. But hey, what do I know? “BTFD”, amirite? Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in a company mentioned in the article.