Firefly Aerospace raised $868 million in an upsized initial public offering after pricing 19.3 million shares at $45 each, above an already increased range of $41 to $43. The sale valued the Cedar Park, Texas-based launch and lunar-lander company at about $6.3 billion. Shares began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol FLY at $70, 55.6% above the offer price, touched $71.16 and closed the session at $60.35, a 34% gain that lifted the company’s market capitalisation to roughly $9.8 billion. The stock slipped about 11% in early trading the following day, a move analysts described as typical post-IPO volatility. Firefly’s listing is the largest U.S. space-technology IPO this year and signals renewed appetite for high-growth offerings after a prolonged market lull. It follows a string of capital raises by space-sector peers and comes amid heightened U.S. government interest in commercial launch capacity. Founded in 2014, Firefly has diversified beyond its medium-lift Alpha rocket into spacecraft services. Its Blue Ghost lander executed the first fully private lunar touchdown in March, and the company reported a $1.1 billion contract backlog at end-March. Strategic partner Northrop Grumman recently invested $50 million and is co-developing the larger Eclipse rocket, targeted for a 2026 debut. Although Firefly’s filings show continuing net losses, management says IPO proceeds will expand production to meet civil, defence and commercial demand.