Firefly Aerospace Inc (NASDAQ:FLY) shares are jumping Wednesday. The company passed a design milestone on Elytra, the spacecraft it is building to ferry NASA’s JPL-made drones to the Moon’s south pole on the MoonFall mission. Here’s what you should know.
- Firefly Aerospace stock is among today’s top performers. What’s driving FLY stock higher?
Firefly Completes Elytra Design Review for MoonFall
Firefly has cleared a major engineering gate on Elytra, the lunar spacecraft it’s building for NASA’s MoonFall mission. Its preliminary design review (PDR) concluded that the design meets the mission’s needs.
NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) staff took part alongside Firefly engineers. Together they examined every major system on the spacecraft, from structure and propulsion to navigation and communications, as well as the plans for testing it.
Four months was all it took. Firefly finished the review less than four months after winning the contract, and Ray Allensworth, vice president of spacecraft, credited the company’s speed and rigor.
NASA’s Moon Base Program is gathering pace, Allensworth said, and Firefly is building spacecraft faster to cover MoonFall and an expanding list of missions to the lunar surface. The company is drawing on technology and operations proven during its first successful Blue Ghost mission.
The final critical design review is Firefly’s next step, which comes before hardware production and assembly.
How MoonFall Will Work
MoonFall is slated to be launch-ready by late 2028 as part of the Moon Base’s first phase, a long-term effort to support a lasting human presence at the lunar south pole and open it to science and business.
Responsibilities are split three ways. NASA’s JPL builds the drones and runs the mission on the agency’s behalf, NASA chooses the rocket, and Firefly handles the ride: Elytra will carry the drones from Earth orbit to lunar orbit and release them above the south pole.
Equipped with high-definition cameras and instruments, the drones will study the south pole’s terrain. Their goal is to find safe landing zones and useful resources that crews could rely on later.
FLY Shares Are Climbing
FLY Price Action: Firefly shares were up 6.44% at $17.36 at the time of publication on Wednesday. The stock is trading near its 52-week low of $15.99, according to Benzinga Pro.
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