High Placement After NASA Order, Aerial Company Firefly Drops After Hours

U.S. commercial space company Firefly Aerospace's stock rose by 18.81% during Tuesday's U.S. stock trading session.

The increase was mainly driven by two factors. First, NASA selected the company to build a spacecraft for transporting drones to the moon in 2028. Second, the anticipation of SpaceX potentially going public led to a collective rise in the space sector, with peer company Rocket Lab climbing 5.5% that day and accumulating a 74% increase over the past month.

Immediately after the significant stock price surge, Firefly announced a stock offering plan during Tuesday's after-hours trading. The company plans to issue 4 million new shares to raise funds, while existing shareholders are set to sell 8 million shares. Affected by the dilution of equity and pressure from shareholders to cash out, the stock fell nearly 5% to $55.95 in after-hours trading, still significantly higher than the trading price of less than $35 at the beginning of this month.

This fundraising move highlights the financial constraints common to commercial space startups that are yet to become profitable. Data provided by FactSet shows that Firefly is not expected to achieve profitability or positive free cash flow before 2029. Wall Street forecasts that between 2026 and 2028, the company will consume approximately $500 million in cash to prepare for subsequent business growth.

The overall valuation of the commercial space sector remains high at present. Firefly's current stock price corresponds to an expected forward price-to-sales ratio of about 17 times for the next 12 months, while its competitor Rocket Lab's price-to-sales ratio has approached 80 times.