Firefly Aerospace in the news lately.

Firefly Aerospace is making news again, although this shouldn't be surprising.  They're the first private company to successfully put a lander on the moon: Firefly successfully landed their Blue Ghost lander on the moon at 3:34 AM EST Sunday morning March 2nd, making Firefly Aerospace the first private company in world history to achieve a successful landing.  

The first private lander on the moon was Intuitive Machine's IM-1, but although all the paying customers were happy with what they got from their landing on the moon, Odysseus - quickly nicknamed Odie, wasn't considered a successful landing.  During final approach, a leg on the lander broke and after the engine cutoff Odie quickly face-planted on the moon.  

Because of this successful landing, Firefly is planning to go public on the NASDAQ stock market. 

The launch of Firefly's Initial Public Offering (IPO) comes as the company works to build on a historic success in March, when Firefly's Blue Ghost lander touched down on the surface of the Moon. Firefly plans to sell 16.2 million shares of common stock, at a price of between $35 and $39 per share. Under those terms, Firefly could raise up to $631.8 million on the public market.

Firefly has applied to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker symbol "FLY."

A camera on Firefly's Blue Ghost lander captured a view of its shadow after touching down on the Moon just after sunrise. Earth looms over the horizon. Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Firefly has said it will use the funds to pay off debt, support dividend payments and "for general corporate purposes."  Firefly's general corporate purposes include a spectrum of activities, and some are going better than others.  Firefly's small Alpha launch vehicle, a rocket capable of placing more than a metric ton of payload into low-Earth orbit is one example of the "not doing as well as others" part of their lineup. 

In six launches since 2021, the Alpha rocket has logged two successful flights, two partial failures that ended up in the wrong orbit, and two missions that failed to reach orbit at all.

Most recently, the sixth flight of the Alpha rocket in April suffered a failure a few minutes after liftoff, when a mishap during stage separation damaged the rocket's second stage.

In addition to the small payload class Alpha rocket, they're also deep into the development of a new medium-class rocket named Eclipse in partnership with Northrop Grumman, which made a $50 million strategic investment into Firefly in May.  And Firefly is developing a spacecraft line called Elytra, a platform that can host military sensors and other payloads and maneuver them into different orbits.

But that's a little extra beyond the headline story about their IPO.  That story was released a week ago, but an important update came along for it late this afternoon.  NASA has awarded Firefly a contract to land a $177 million contract for the first multiple rover mission to the moon's south pole.  

Targeted for landing in 2029, the mission will be the first under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to carry multiple rovers and instruments in a single flight. They will explore some of the moon's harshest environments for the presence of usable resources to support future lunar excursions, including crewed efforts.
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Firefly's selection for this new CLPS task order contracts the company to provide complete service to the lunar surface "with a period of performance from [July 29, 2025] to March 29, 2030," the statement says.

This contract marks Firefly's fifth CLPS task order and its fourth planned lunar mission. The payloads are products of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the University of Bern in Switzerland. The mission's science package combines mobile exploration, advanced imaging and regolith analysis to study the south pole's geology and environmental resources. The planned experiments include: 

• MoonRanger — An autonomous microrover from NASA’s Ames Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh company Astrobotic, equipped with a Neutron Spectrometer System for mapping hydrogen-bearing volatiles and characterizing regolith .
• Stereo Plume Cameras — An advanced imaging system to observe how rocket exhaust interacts with the lunar surface during descent; developed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.
• Laser Retroreflector Array — Passive optically reflective markers to enable precision laser range measurements from orbit, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
• CSA rover – Capable of exploring permanently shadowed craters, measuring radiation, and searching for water ice; equipped with multiple imagers and spectrometers.
• Laser Ionization Mass Spectrometer – Analyzes regolith chemistry using a Firefly-built robotic arm and excavation system robotic arm excavation system (University of Bern).

The lunar south pole is the area of highest interest in the current "space race" because several observations have indicated or implied that there might be large reserves of water, probably as ice, in the permanent shadows of craters near the pole - and water can be used drinking or rocket fuel, depending on its prevalence.  The mission will also study environmental hazards like radiation and surface erosion. 

Firefly Aerospace started as a propulsion company. This image released by Firefly earlier this year shows the company's family of engines. From left to right: Miranda for the Eclipse rocket; Lightning and Reaver for the Alpha rocket; and Spectre for the Blue Ghost and Elytra spacecraft.  (note, look carefully at the model on the right - she's holding the engine in front of herself and it's small)