Jason Kim's Firefly Seeks $5.5 Billion IPO Valuation
By Reuters | 28 Jul, 2025

As the first commercial firm to achieve a soft landing on the moon, Firefly is aiming to become a truly end-to-end space transport service.

Northrop Grumman-backed space technology startup Firefly Aerospace is targeting a valuation of about $5.5 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, as investor appetite for high-growth sectors shows signs of a sustained rebound.

The Cedar Park, Texas-based maker of spacecraft and launch vehicles is aiming to sell 16.2 million shares, priced between $35 and $39 apiece, to raise as much as $631.8 million, a filing showed on Monday. 

Firefly became the first commercial firm to achieve a soft landing on the moon when its Blue Ghost Lunar Lander touched down on March 2 after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle on January 15, 2025.

The Blue Ghost lunar landing came four months after Korean American Jason Kim was named CEO of Firefly in August 2024.  Prior to joining the 700-employee company based in Cedar Park, Texas, Kim was CEO of Millennium Space Systems.  Prior to that he held various key executive roles at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, and the U.S. Air Force where he acquired expertise in aerospace and defense systems, small to large satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, rocket launch, vertical integration, manufacturing, assembly, and on-orbit mission operations.

As a prominent graduate of the Air Force Academy Kim is a member of the Board of Directors for the Air Force Academy Foundation and serves on the Executive Committee for Space Workforce 2030.  He graduated with a BS in electrical engineering from the Academy, then earned a masters in EE from the Air Force Institute of Technology and an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

Firefly considers itself a full-service, end-to-end space firm that manufactures small and medium lift launch vehicles, lunar landers and orbital transfer vehicles.

The launch comes as the U.S. IPO market shows signs of steady recovery in 2025 after a slump of almost three years, as easing interest rates, improved market conditions and a backlog of high-growth companies revive investor interest. 

Several notable listings, including neo-bank Chime and stablecoin issuer Circle, have rekindled optimism in recent weeks, with more firms preparing to test the waters in the second half of the year.

"Although it isn't riding on the hype of the current cryptocurrency and AI craze, Firefly still promises growth, represents a diversified portfolio exposure and plays to a defense investment theme that has been hot across both the IPO market and wider equities," said Samuel Kerr, head of equity capital markets at Mergermarket. 

SPACE RACE 

Several billionaires and private firms are fueling a new space race in the U.S., pouring money into rockets, satellites and lunar missions, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. 

With NASA relying more on commercial partnerships and defense spending rising, the space industry is rapidly becoming a high-stakes arena for technological dominance, national security and economic opportunity.

Firefly Aerospace's IPO aligns with two major investment themes, the commercialization of space exploration and the growing role of space in global defense, Kerr said. 

Space startups continued to draw investor dollars in the April-June period, which was the second-strongest quarter on record for funding, an industry report showed earlier this month. 

Firefly Aerospace succeeded in its first attempt to land on the moon in March with its uncrewed Blue Ghost spacecraft. It expects the Blue Ghost lander to fly annual missions to the moon. 

The company notched a valuation of over $2 billion in a November 2024 funding round, when it had raised $175 million. 

Earlier this year, U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman also invested $50 million in the startup. 

Firefly Aerospace has forged collaborations with industry giants Lockheed Martin and L3Harris as well. 

It will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol 'FLY' after the IPO closes.

Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies and Wells Fargo Securities are the lead underwriters. 

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas; with additional reporting by Goldsea staff)