Firefly Aerospace raised $868 million in an upsized initial public offering, selling about 19.3 million shares at $45 apiece—above an already-increased marketing range of $41 to $43. The Cedar Park, Texas-based rocket and lunar-lander builder began trading on Nasdaq on Thursday under the symbol FLY. Investor demand proved robust: the stock opened at $70, roughly 56 percent above the offer price, lifting Firefly’s market capitalisation to nearly $10 billion. The reception extends a run of buoyant U.S. listings and underscores appetite for companies positioned to serve the surging launch and satellite-services market. Founded in 2017, Firefly became only the second private company to land on the Moon when its NASA-funded Blue Ghost lander touched down in March. The company has launched its smaller Alpha rocket six times and is co-developing a partially reusable medium-lift vehicle, Eclipse, with Northrop Grumman. Its order backlog stood at about $1.1 billion at the end of March. First-quarter revenue jumped six-fold year-on-year to $55.9 million, while the net loss widened slightly to $60.1 million. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies and Wells Fargo led the offering, whose proceeds will be used to repay debt, cover preferred-stock dividends and fund general corporate needs. Firefly is the third space company to go public in 2025, joining Voyager Technology and Karman Holdings in testing investor enthusiasm for the fast-growing commercial space sector.