Firefly Aerospace (NASDAQ:FLY) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Monday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
Firefly Aerospace reported record quarterly revenue of $81 million, with significant contributions from its Blue Ghost lunar lander and Electra spacecraft programs.
The company announced a new partnership with Nvidia to enhance its Ocula Lunar Imaging Service, enabling faster data processing in cislunar space.
Firefly Aerospace secured agreements with the US Space Force for the space-based interceptor program and continued progress on its reusable Eclipse rocket.
The company is scaling up its infrastructure, including expanding clean room facilities, to meet the increasing demand for lunar missions and other space ventures.
Management reiterated the 2026 revenue outlook of $420 million to $450 million, supported by strong demand signals from NASA and national security sectors.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Greetings. Welcome to The Firefly Aerospace First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal remarks. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised to withdraw your question. Please press star 11 again. Please note this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Michael Sheets, Firefly Director of Investor Relations. Michael, you may begin.
Michael Sheets (Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you operator. Hello there and may the Fourth be with you. I’m Michael Sheets and welcome to Firefly’s first Quarter Financial Results Call. I’m pleased to be joined on the call by CEO Jason Kim and CFO Darren Ma as we report for the period ending March 31, 2026. Today’s call will include forward looking statements including, but not limited to, statements the company will make about its future financial and operating performance, growth strategy and market outlook. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results and trends to differ materially are set forth in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. Firefly assumes no obligation to update any forward looking statements which speak only as of their respective dates. Also in this call we will discuss both GAAP and non GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP measures is included in the first quarter 2026 earnings release. Unless otherwise stated, financial information referenced in this call will be non-GAAP. Our earnings press release, SEC filings and a replay of today’s call can be found on our investor relations websiteat investors.fireflyspace.com Now I’ll turn the call over to Jason.
Jason Kim (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you Michael and Welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Firefly opened the year with strong execution and increasing momentum driven by major government programs that align directly with our core capabilities. We delivered record quarterly revenue of $81 million. The acceleration of the Artemis program combined with NASA’s moon base initiative calls for monthly robotic lunar landings and reinforces the demand signals we’ve been building toward. Our early investments to scale Blue Ghost production and our milestone as the first commercial company to land on the Moon successfully position us to be a critical commercial partner as NASA expands lunar operations. With three additional missions ahead, we’re already executing toward the goal. We also advanced our Ocular Lunar Imaging Service through a new partnership with NVIDIA, enabling on orbit processing for faster, more actionable data in cis-lunar space on the National Security Front Firefly subsidiary Saitek secured an agreement with the US Space Force to support the space based interceptor program under Golden Dome. We are concurrently delivering and improving the value of our AI enabled data processing through the US Space Force’s operational forged missile defense system within launch. The capacity constrained market is driving increased demand for Alpha following its successful return to flight. We also completed the Victus DM responsive launch demonstration and made steady progress on our reusable Eclipse rocket in the first quarter. The pace of change in the space economy is accelerating and Firefly is scaling up our existing revenue generating capabilities to meet the demand across every line of business for those new to Firefly. We are a space and defense company delivering innovative hardware and software to perform the hardest missions in space for national security, exploration and commercial technology. Our hardware is represented by four revenue generating products, our Blue Ghost Lunar Landers, Electra Satellite orbiters, Small lift Alpha rockets and Medium lift Eclipse rockets. Firefly’s software Portfolio falls under SciTech’s AI enabled defense systems which are proven in national security operations. The industry tailwinds behind artificial intelligence and data centers are fueling operational realities for our company as we deliver crucial no fail systems in support of the US and our allies. We are meeting the US Government’s call for commercial investment, speed and scale in defense and exploration. Our advanced technology products and funding of infrastructure include upgrades and expansion of Firefly’s co located spacecraft and rocket factories, clean rooms and test ends as well as our data centers and classified facilities. Now, turning to our business updates in the first quarter we completed new milestones across each of our product lines and services. The Lunar Opportunity is here. Recent milestones including the NASA moon base event, Artemis 2, successful lunar orbit and our Blue Ghost moon landing and surface operations ignited the industry and the world. The Moon is now a permanent destination. NASA’s moon based plan represents a dramatic acceleration of the Artemis program with a detailed pathway to irregular cadence emissions to the surface and persistent support from satellites in lunar orbit. Our prior growth strategy was to extend from one moon landing a year to multiple a year and now we have an amplified demand signal from NASA. The agency’s objective is to provide monthly robotic landings on the Moon’s surface starting next year, as well as larger lander missions to support the required lunar infrastructure for a permanent presence. The first two phases of the NASA Moon base architecture taking place over the next seven years represents a $20 billion program with multiple shots on goal opportunities for Firefly. When you combine Blue Ghost, the only commercial lander to operate successfully with our Electra spacecraft, we provide the ideal system to deliver and support many of the payloads and capabilities needed such as navigation, orbital communications, surface observation, power infrastructure, exploration drones, rovers, cargo and support systems for humans on the Moon. The Moon is a vastly untapped resource and Firefly is the tip of the spear in the routine deliveries and services that NASA needs to support a permanent presence on the Moon. Last week we heard NASA Administrator Isaac Mims request in a Congressional hearing to template Blue Ghost and launch with frequency. As stated earlier, we are already building towards this. In the first quarter we made significant progress on our new clean room which is four times the size of our existing clean room. This enables a production line of lunar landers for frequent missions. We are leveraging our vertical integration to scale up while also investing in our Blue Ghost supply chain. We are working closely with each major supplier to ensure they are ramping up with us through through long term agreements and strategic inventory in place to ensure quality, schedule and quantities of delivery. Meanwhile, assembly of our Blue Ghost lander and Electra orbiter is well underway for Blue Ghost Mission 2 and we’re on track to complete assembly and payload integration this summer. We named Blue Ghost Mission 2 riders to the dark as our team charges toward another historic milestone, conducting the first American landing on the Moon’s far side carrying both NASA and commercial payloads. We are making progress on our additional lander contracts with the blue Ghost Mission 3 Preliminary Design Review complete which verifies the vehicles designed to deliver payloads to the Moon’s Gruitheisen domes. The team is now preparing to complete the critical design review for Mission 3 while also getting ready to complete the preliminary design review for Blue Ghost Mission four to the Moon’s south pole. Moving to Electra we’re pleased to add NVIDIA as another Firefly partner with our first collaboration included as part of our Ocularr Lunar Imaging Service, NVIDIA’s Jetson module was embedded in the high resolution Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory telescopes and delivered to Firefly spacecraft facility for integration on our Electra Orbital Vehic. This Electra will first serve as a transfer vehicle and communications relay for Blue Ghost and then begin our Oculus service to support advanced lunar surface mapping, mineral detection and reconnaissance for five years in lunar orbit. Our Ocular data will be rapidly processed onboard Electra and autonomously transmitted back to Earth utilizing the NVIDIA Jetson module. Combined with Firefly scitech enabled AI software. This allows Firefly to mitigate downlink constraints from the Moon by processing data on orbit before it is transmitted to Earth as real time actionable insights for government and commercial customers. Firefly’s AI software will further enable advanced space domain awareness Our AI algorithms and data fusion technologies are already proven in critical national security missions in Earth orbit. Our software will enable Electra to leverage multiple data feeds on board to more accurately track objects and provide timely situational awareness of space operations occurring in the cislunar domain. These capabilities are transferable to Electra’s upcoming Space Domain Awareness mission for the Defense Innovation Unit Sinequan project. This mission also incorporates high resolution Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory telescopes just like the ones enabling our Oculus service. After completing the critical design review for the mission, the team has begun building and testing ELECTRO flight hardware. Additionally, in the first quarter, Firefly completed critical Electra test milestones for Blue Ghost Mission 2, including separation testing to demonstrate Electra’s mechanisms that will deploy the European Space Agency’s Lunar Pathfinder satellite following a separation from our Blue Ghost lander. This further highlights Electra’s ability to operate and deploy critical high mass payloads across cislunar space. The team also completed the initial interoperability testing to ensure our Electra orbiter communicates with Blue Ghost on the Moon’s far side and acts as a backup communications relay for NASA’s Lucy Night payload. This enables NASA’s radio telescope to operate for up to two years on the surface even without direct line of sight to Earth. This relay service on Electra is the pathway to our commercial offering, delivering alternative communications options that reduce blackout periods and strengthen connectivity for multiple future lunar missions for Firefly and our customers. As we saw at the recent space symposium event, there is growing demand for Electra’s robust capabilities combined with our AI powered software to support dynamic space operations for national security, space exploration and international missions. The demand includes space maneuverability to novel orbits, deorbit services for multiple spacecraft, and long haul communications. At the symposium, US Space Force Major General Purdy further emphasized the need for enhanced national security capabilities in cislunar space, including transportation, communications and navigation systems beyond Earth orbit. Once deployed, those assets require protection and continuous monitoring, which is best done from the moon as the ultimate high ground. Our electric vehicles are well positioned to enable these missions with high thrust, precision SPECTRE engines, ample fuel and payload capacity, and AI software. As General Saltzman said in his April 30 congressional testimony, speed, scale and clear demand signals are critical and Electra positions us to capture that with responsive on orbit capability. We’ll continue to scale up our Electra production line as demand steadily increases. Moving to our Saitek software offerings under our spacecraft business, we are pleased to be selected by the US Space Force to support the space based interceptor program under Golden Dome. In a Space Force press release just a week ago, this program was announced to develop a space based missile defense interceptor system that will demonstrate capability integrated into the golden dome architecture. By 2028. Space Force awarded a select group of companies including Firefly subsidiary SciTech with contracts totaling up to $3.2 billion. This critical program will enable next generation space based tracking and advanced interceptors integrated with artificial intelligence to counter the maneuverability and lethality of threats. As the prime contractor, we continue to execute on the operational US Space Force Forge system providing a modernized AI enabled missile warning and tracking architecture. We’re rapidly processing vast amounts of data from satellites across all orbits from LEO to MIO to GEO to deliver high quality mission critical information to our warfighters to defend against threats. After the Space Force operationally accepted our Forge system last year, in the first quarter we were awarded a 109 million dollar engineering change proposal to accelerate and expand data center delivery. This critical system processed thousands of threats in the first 30 days of the Iran conflict to help protect our war fighters. The team further completed the interim ground readiness review for the Space Development Agency. As part of our role in delivering the mission management and data fusion ground components for the proliferated warfighter Space architecture satellite constellation tranche 1 tracking layer. More recently, the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded us a contract to support development of the advanced algorithm R and D and verification architecture by implementing deep learning and advanced AI algorithms on small size, weight and power processors. This capability supports enhanced target detection, tracking and custody and is conducive to future on orbit processing missions. Last week we also heard Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Kaine underscore in a congressional hearing the urgent need for critical investments in space based command and control, artificial intelligence and advanced surveillance and reconnaissance. This capability counters modern multi domain threats where operations are coordinated and synchronized across air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. Our proven AI software and …
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