Firefly Aerospace Inc. (FLY) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please note this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Michael Sheets, Firefly Director of Invest Relations. Michael, you may begin.

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 website at investors.fireflyspace.com. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jason.

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 Ocula Lunar Imaging Service through a new partnership with NVIDIA, enabling on-orbit processing for faster, more actionable data in syslunar space. On the national security front, Firefly subsidiary SciTech secured an agreement with the U.S. Space Force to support the space-based interceptor program under Golden Dome. We are concurrently delivering and proving the value of our AI-enabled data processing through the U.S. Space Force's operational Forge Missile Defense System. Within launch, the capacity-constrained market is driving increased demand for Alpha following a 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 electric satellite orbiters small lift alpha rockets and medium lift eclipse rockets firefly's software portfolio falls under scitex 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 U.S. and our allies. We are meeting the U.S. 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, cleaning rooms, and test stands, 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 II's successful lunar orbit, and our Blue Ghost moon landing and surface operations, nations 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 a regular cadence of missions 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 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-based 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 electric 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 Isaacman's 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 cleanroom, which is four times the size of our existing cleanroom. 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 long-term agreements and strategic inventory in place to ensure quality, schedule, and quantities of delivery. Meanwhile, assembly of our Blue Ghost Lander and Electro 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 Through 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 Grootheisen 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 Dose Mission 4 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 Ocula Lunar Imaging Service. NVIDIA's Jetson module was embedded in the high-resolution Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory telescopes and delivered to Firefly's spacecraft facility for integration on our Elettra orbital vehicle. This Elettra will first serve as a transfer vehicle and communications relay for Blue Ghost and then begin our Ocula service to support advanced lunar surface mapping, mineral detection, and reconnaissance for five years in lunar orbit. Our Ocula data will be rapidly processed onboard Elettra and autonomously transmitted back to Earth utilizing the NVIDIA jets and module combined with Firefly's 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 Cinequon 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 Electra 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 separation from our Blue Ghost lander. This further highlights Electra's ability to operate and deploy critical high-mass payloads across sysliminary 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 Knight 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, de-orbit asset services for multiple spacecraft, and long-haul communications. At the symposium, U.S. 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 specter engines, ample fuel and payload capacity, and AI software. As General Salzman said in his April 30 congressional testimony, speed, scale, and clear demand signals are critical, and electric positions us to capture that with responsive on-orbit capability. We'll continue to scale up our electric production line as demand steadily increases. Moving to our SciTech software offerings under our spacecraft business, we are pleased to be selected by the U.S. 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's 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 speed, maneuverability, and lethality of threats. As the prime contractor, we continue to execute on the operational U.S. 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 MEO 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 engineering 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 warfighters. 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&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 Kane, 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 on-orbit processing capabilities are well-positioned to support these multi-domain operations. Shifting to launch, in March, Alpha Flight 7 successfully returned to flight and completed all mission objectives after deploying a Lockheed Martin demonstrator payload and validating key Block 2 subsystems. Additionally, in the first quarter, Firefly supported Lockheed Martin on the U.S. Space Force's Victus Diem mission, performing two responsive space exercises to practice and advance emergency launch protocols required in a real threat scenario. Victus Diem marks the second tactically responsive space effort that Firefly completed to date after our record-setting Victus Knox mission, which launched with a 24-hour notice. The first VICTIS-DM exercise included a rapid payload processing demonstration where spacecraft arrival operations, checkouts, mating, and encapsulation were completed in under 12 hours. The second exercise included a 36-hour rapid launch simulation to practice and advance emergency launch protocols required to execute tactically responsive space missions in a real threat scenario. We are now focused on delivering our first Block II vehicle, which will debut on Flight 8 that's targeted to launch late this summer. Block 2 is designed to expand Alpha's deployable launch capabilities for critical response to space missions, such as hypersonic testing, national security missions, and commercial satellite launches for domestic and international customers. Firefly completed qualification testing for the first and second stage tanks for Flight 8 and moved into the integration and test phase as we progressed towards launch. The significant improvements across alpha from block two focus around enhancing reliability and production rate as part of our company culture of safety quality and reliability and we're working ahead we have structures and engines and build for flights 9 10 and beyond rolling off our automated fiber placement machine and into assembly as we continue to target three more alpha launches in 2026. For our 2027 Manifest and Beyond, we talked to both new and repeat customers at Space Symposium this year and see strong interest in Alpha on the heels of our successful Flight 7 launch. As we look to the future, we are pleased to see the recent Swedish defense budget allocating tens of millions to invest in orbital launch infrastructure. Our international partners want to bring Alpha to market in Sweden, as well as other allied countries to meet the growing demand for satellite launch capabilities around the globe. This approach allows us to not only increase our launch cadence, but also open new markets, add resiliency to our launch sites, and provide a national security advantage. Firefly also recently signed an agreement with Seagate Space to collaborate on the development of an offshore launch platform that enables responsive sea-based alpha launches. Together, we will work to mature the design of an integrated offshore launch system capable of supporting the unique requirements of liquid-fueled orbital lockets. These capabilities are in alignment with the Space Force's demands for flexible infrastructure to accommodate responsive small launchers and eliminate single points of failure. In the Spaceport of the Future report, they've called for flexible manifesting, rapid integration, and launch-to-orbit timelines of 24 hours or less for designated payloads, which we've proven on Victus Knox. Everything we learned from building testing and launching our Alpha rockets allows us to improve and reduce risk for Eclipse. Our reusable medium lift vehicle is marching towards its debut, while the need for more launch capacity from more providers is growing. All the major flight articles for our first Eclipse vehicles are in build and test, including our Miranda flight engines. In the first quarter, we complete a qualification of the Eclipse Interstage, a critical primary structure that connects the first stage to the second stage, as well as the liquid oxygen transfer line in the composite overwrapped pressure vessels. More recently, we are progressing through the test campaign on Eclipse's first-stage tanks, which tower nearly 100 feet tall. This risk reduction testing allows us to push the tanks beyond their limits to verify flight margins. With that business summary, I'll turn it over to Darren for a review of the first quarter financials.

Thank you, Jason, and good afternoon, everyone. We delivered record Q1 revenue driven by strong business fundamentals. As Jason highlighted, we have multiple growth drivers in place, which gives us confidence in achieving our long-term objectives. In today's call, I am going to review the financial results of first quarter 2026 before handing the call back to Jason for closing remarks. For listeners new to Firefly, I wanted to reemphasize that key operational metrics drive our financial performance. In our spacecraft solutions business, we generally recognize revenue over time under each contract as we complete milestones. This adds a more predictable recurring revenue component alongside the more event-driven launch business. For the launch business, we focus on the number of launches. For example, revenue for our operational alpha vehicle is recognized at a point in time when the launch occurs. For Eclipse, while in development, we recognize revenue as a percentage of completion based on program milestones as part of the Northrop Grumman partnership. Once the Eclipse vehicle is operational, we will recognize revenue in the same manner as alpha when launches occur now turning to our first quarter results we delivered the highest quarter of revenue in the company's history at 80.9 million dollars this compares with 57.7 million in the fourth quarter and 55.9 in the same quarter a year ago the sequential revenue growth was driven by the ramp of the forge and golden dome space space interceptor programs, a full quarter of SCITEC, and the successful alpha launch. Within our total revenue, spacecraft solutions accounted for 67.6 million dollars and launch was 13.3 million dollars. We ended the first quarter with a total backlog of approximately 1.3 billion dollars, relatively flat from last quarter, reflecting the conversion of backlog to revenue and timing of new awards. As Jason mentioned earlier, we are excited about the industry tailwinds, including NASA opportunities for Blue Ghost, customer demand for Alpha, additional missions for Elettra, and increasing demand for our AI software solutions. Our position in the market and these sector catalysts provide Firefly with confidence in our long-term revenue growth trajectory. First quarter GAAP gross margin was 21.6%, compared with 27.7% in the prior quarter. The change was primarily due to a higher mix of cost-plus program contracts driving revenue. GAAP operating expenses for the first quarter were $113.1 million, compared with $101.6 million in the fourth quarter. The increase was primarily from the inclusion of Cytex operating expenses for the full quarter and our continued R&D investments. For operating expenses, the primary differences between GAAP and non-GAAP measures are stock-based compensation expense, one-time transaction-related expenses, and the amortization of intangibles. Non-GAAP operating expenses for the first quarter were $93.7 million, compared with $80.5 million in the fourth quarter. The sequential increase was driven by our continued R&D investments to support Alpha Block II production ramp and Eclipse development. GAAP operating loss was $95.7 million, compared with a loss of $85.6 million in the fourth Non-GAAP operating loss was $76.2 million, compared with a loss of $64.5 million in the fourth quarter. GAP net loss in the first quarter was $96.7 million, compared with a loss of $41.1 million in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, we recognize a one-time $37.1 million tax benefit related to the SciTech acquisition and a one-time $8.4 million gain on settlement of contingent liabilities in Q4. Our non-GAAP net loss in the first quarter was $74 million. This compares with a net loss of $58.5 million in the prior quarter. GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share was $0.61 compared with a loss of $0.26 last quarter. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share for the first quarter was $0.46 compared with a loss of $0.38 last quarter. We exited Q1 with a share count of 160.1 million shares. We expect our total share count to increase by about 1 million shares per quarter in the first quarter, compared to 12.6 million in the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was a loss of $64.7 million, compared with a loss of $57.3 million in the fourth quarter. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with a total liquidity of $811.6 million, consisting of $551.6 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and $260 million of available capacity from our revolving credit facility. After the close of the quarter, we upsized the capacity of our credit facility to $305 million, which remains undrawn. Capital expenditures in the first quarter were $16.3 million dollars compared with 12.1 in the fourth quarter. The sequential increase was driven by test stand upgrades to support Alpha Block II production and spacecraft manufacturing expansion that positions us to support NASA's accelerated lunar opportunities. Free cash flow was an outflow of 78.9 million dollars compared with an outflow of 79.3 million in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, in the second quarter, we will have the final CITEC acquisition-related payment of approximately $24 million reflected in our cash flow. Now, turning to our revenue outlook for 2026. With continued strength across our business, we remain confident in our trajectory to achieve significant annual revenue growth this year and are reiterating our outlook of $420 million to $450 million, consistent with what we gave on the March call. Thank you for your interest in Firefly. With that, I'll turn the call back to Jason for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Darren. The first quarter proved what we have been building toward. Firefly is not just participating in a space economy, we are shaping it. This is a defining moment in our industry, from our moon landing to missile defense systems, from responsive launch to AI-powered space domain awareness, We are delivering the integrated capabilities that define the future of space exploration and defense operations. NASA is accelerating. The Space Force is investing. Our allies are mobilizing. Firefly stands ready. With mission-proven hardware in production, battle-tested software in operation, and our team of Firefly is innovating and executing at pace. We stand at the threshold of a new era, where what was once impossible becomes inevitable. Firefly has the end-to-end ecosystem to make it happen. Thank you for joining today's call. Michael, back to you.

Thank you, Jason. Operator, we're ready to take questions.

Thank you so much. And as a reminder, to ask a question, press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To remove yourself, press star 11 again. One moment for our first question. It comes from the line of Sheila Kiyoglu with Jeffries. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, guys, and thank you so much for the time. On this morning, you guys announced SciTech won a key position among 12 total companies on Space Force's space-based interceptor program. Can you maybe elaborate on that one a little bit more, your positioning there, and how SciTech accelerates the growth profile of Firefly?

Thanks, Sheila. I'll go back to what we've said before on previous earnings calls is that Firefly had multiple shots on goal for Golden Dome, and we've referenced that. A lot of the capabilities that SciTech has in battle-tested AI development on the Forge program, which went operational last September, it's seen a lot in real operations, particularly in Iran. And so a lot of the battle-tested algorithms are very transferable to other programs like Golden Dome. And if you remember what General Gutmine has said before, one of the hardest parts of such an architecture of this magnitude and complexity is the command and control, and the fire control, and the ground processing. And because SciTech has battle-tested and has exercised its AI no-fail missions in world-world operations, all those algorithms are transferable to the Golden Dome as well. And then as you know, our Alpha rocket is able to take one ton to orbit as well as two tons to suborbital so it makes it really right-sized to launch hypersonic tests potentially targets for things like space-space interceptor and so there's multiple shots that we have on goal great thank you for that and maybe Jason you know you called out in the slides you expect a 20 billion dollar opportunity for the initial phases of the Artemis moon-based program over the next seven years based on monthly missions and large

landers. I guess, what are you hoping, and I'm sure you spoke at Space Symposium, what are you hearing from the customer on that? And can you talk about your operational readiness in support of that type of cadence?

Yeah, the bold thinking that we heard from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman recently in the last month since he released the moon base plans by NASA is the exact type of thinking that we embrace at Firefly. We were already thinking ahead and already building out our clean rooms and our production line capabilities to support not just one lunar lander a year but multiple and this just further validates or amplifies the demand signal and so when you look at having a permanent presence on the moon you're going to have to validate a lot of technologies to understand the moon better to support you know human environmental control light support systems on the moon, take cargo to the moon, as well as have mobile mobility such as rovers and light terrain vehicles. So all those things are things that we are working on is landers that can be templated into production line landers so that we can address the frequency that's being demanded by NASA to take those types of technologies. One of the things that we're doing is we've quadrupled our clean room space compared to our existing clean room and that so that floor space and footprint helps us with the rate we're also with our new chief operating officer Ramon Sanchez that came in fourth quarter last year he's brought a lot of best practices and expertise of production flow and labor utilization and equipment utilization and so So that's helping us with ramping up production lines. We're vertical integrated as well. So one of the things that is important for rating up lunar landers is having the hardware put together, having the components. So we build the avionics, we build the harnesses, carbon composites, structures, but we also are investing in some of our supply chain of our key critical components. And so we're working closely with our supply chain in terms of having their dedicated support, as well as strategic inventory and quality. Safety, quality, and reliability is really important to us. And so that's our focus as well, because at the end of the day, it's about increasing the frequency of launch of these lunar landers. It's also building bigger lunar landers that we have designs for. And then the other thing is we want to ensure the probability of mission success, just like we did on Blue Ghost Mission 1.

Got it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Seth Sviesman with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed.

Hey, thanks very much, and good afternoon. I wanted to follow up quickly on the space-based interceptor award for SCITEC and just understand kind of in terms of how they fit in, how you see the ground station role kind of ramping up. What specifically, you know, does the infrastructure that SCITEC has now, is that what would be used to work on and support a space-based interceptor as part of Golden Dome? Is it something that would require the build-out of new infrastructure? I guess if you can kind of help us think about in a little bit more detailed way what that involves and where we saw there were several contracts that went out to different companies to work on it. You know, are there other competitors who are, you know, potentially playing the same role here?

Hi, Seth. You know, I think I've mentioned in fourth quarter of last year that SciTech, the acquisition of SciTech was strategic, and it truly is. It really bolstered Firefly's entrance into national security, and in particularly SciTech is the prime contractor on Forge, and that's a multi-hundred million dollar program of record. It is doing AI today in real world operations. If you remember what General Guttline said about Golden Dome, he's looking to defeat or stay ahead of the threats that have speed and maneuverability as well as lethality and one of the things that counters that is AI in the use of AI and because SciTech has that capability as well as a rich history of 45 years of algorithms that also have been used to support the Space Force and the Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency all of those battle-tested operational algorithms are also brought to bear for things like golden dome ground processing. And so with the AI processing, you could speed up the timelines because the threats are very advanced.

And in terms of the capabilities that SciTech has, they can mix and match a lot of those algorithms together to apply to to this mission okay okay cool and and then just in terms of the the overall contribution that they had in in the quarter is that something that that you guys can disclose yeah yeah we haven't broken out separately but for Dan golden dome space-based interceptors that the revenue did ramp up in Q1 this quarter. Okay. Okay. Cool. Very good. Thanks. Thanks very much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Christine Leawood with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to follow up on your comments about the Alpha after Stairway to 7 success. You called out, you know, stronger customer demand, but backlog is relatively flat in the quarter. Does that mean that you anticipate orders that occurred after the quarter close? And how should we think about that order trends for the year?

Hi, Christy. Yes, we're seeing strong interest in Alpha on the heels of the successful Alpha flight seven stairway to seven mission we completed all the post-flight data everything was nominal and as you remember I was in the mission control room with our team and it was a flawless launch it was with a Lockheed Martin demonstrator as well and we were able to insert that into the proper orbit we even had our relight of the second stage and a lot of the you know transition to block two a lot of the components uh technologies that are going to help us with manufacturability and reliability on block two were tested on flight seven uh to include the avionics the in-house avionics the in-house batteries um and some temperature protection systems um so we're very very happy with those results uh because of that when we're at space symposium there was a lot of interest with existing customers as well as new customers and it's just a matter of timing a lot a lot of our government customers as you know they're going through some timing with their funding as well as we had a lot of interactions with new customers as well so I'll pass it on to Darren in terms of any additional yeah I think you covered it Jason.

I mean, also keep in mind we burned down the backlog this quarter with the record revenue quarter as well.

Great. Super helpful. And if I could pivot to the moon opportunities. So with NASA, you know, potentially right skipping Artemis and going straight to the moon, you know, Blue Ghost's capability set is really unique there, you know, with your successful landing as the first commercial company to have done so. But I was wondering, you know, as you start seeing other companies really also accelerate their human landing systems capabilities in just much higher volume of potential payload that could reach the moon. How do you think about where Blue Ghost lives in the construct when, you know, you have higher volume available too? Where does it live in that ecosystem and how do we think about the longer term opportunity for Blue Ghost? And, you know, I think, Jason, you called out that, you know, you're also looking at a higher payload lander in the future?

Yes. In terms of our Blue Ghost line, we have designs for larger landers. A lot of the underlying technologies that made us successfully land and perform the 14 days of service operations on Blue Ghost Mission 1 is transferable to our larger lander designs as well. If you go back to the NASA budgets, the CLPS 1.0 program, which is a highly successful program, has increased its budget from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion. And then if you look at the anticipated CLPS 2.0 program, it's going to be around $6 billion. And when you look at, you know, post-2030 landings, there's at least three 500-kilogram to lunar surface CLPS missions, and then there's 12 three-ton mass to lunar surface as well, and then the remaining 15 are around eight tons of mass to lunar surface. Those are all in our roadmap. In fact, our larger lunar lander designs are scalable to meet that demand. So it's not just the frequency of launch cadence of these lunar landers that NASA is asking for. It's also the magnitude or the size of these lunar landers that are increasing. And because we have a lot of capabilities that share common vertical integrated components such as carbon composites and engine technology, as well as avionics, we build big things at this company. Our alpha rocket's 100 feet tall, and our eclipse rocket's 200 feet tall. So, building a larger lander is right up our alley.

Great. Super helpful. And when do you think you could see these demand signals firm up into contracts?

We're seeing a lot of requests already, Christine. And so there are things like CX-2. There's things like Moonfall and CS-8 and Eclipse 2.0. And so these are, majority of these are already solicitations that are already out.

And so if NASA stays on schedule, performers can get on contract as no earlier than third quarter. of this year for some of these great thank you for the color thank you our next question comes from edison you with deutsche bank please proceed hey um this is laura on for anything thanks for taking our question so i want to ask about like more broadly how should we think about the role of ai across your business today i mean given your recently announced a media collaboration of the R&D contract you're awarded, should we be thinking AI is primarily supporting site-tech software, or do you also see it's becoming increasingly important for the spacecraft autonomy, et cetera?

Yeah, you're exactly right, Laura, that we see AI as critically important to space. One of the visions that we have is we want to deploy on-orbit processing more and more and that's what makes this SciTech acquisition so strategic fourth quarter last year is that we were thinking ahead and SciTech's software is operational on the ground today with big data centers to do no-fail Space Force missions programs of records but they also have experience operationally of performing on-orbit processing in space. And so that's one of the things that we envision at Firefly is we have the whole ecosystem to launch satellites, build the satellites, operate the satellites with processing on board with the SciTech algorithms to perform AI and processing with low latency because a lot of these missions that we're going after especially in national security have very very short timelines to be effective um our um you know recent partnership news with nvidia around the moon on our oculus service to do space domain awareness uh more quickly uh using ai and sci-tech algorithms is a perfect example of that of taking things that work on the ground or lower earth orbit and then deploying it to the moon because the moon is the ultimate high ground so we see more and more deployment of AI on orbit in addition AI is being used across the company to increase productivity so we see it not only in the products that we provide but also in the use of how we do work as well okay thank you appreciate the color thank you and as a reminder to ask a question simply press star one one to get in the queue it comes from the line of suji de silva with roth capital hi jason hi darren congratulations

to the progress here um following up on the uh the alpha discussions you've had um at space symposium and others i'm wondering given your strong government defense relationships will do we expect the launches in the future in the manifest to remain primarily government or do you think will diversify into civil or commercial? Obviously, there's a lot of strong demand from government, but wondering if it'll be an effort on your part to diversify that or that shouldn't be the expectation?

Hi, Suzy. Demand is not the problem with alpha. We are steadily increasing rate year to year because there's so much demand from national security as well as commercial and in terms of civil as well. But what I would say is that a lot of the benefits of the Alpha Rocket, of being a one-ton to orbit capability and a two-ton to suborbital capability, as well as having the responsive launch capability, like we demonstrated on Victus Knox and recently with Victus Diem, that really is very fit for national security purposes. Because if you think about national security purposes, if there was a conflict, especially in a near-peer conflict, one of the things that would be vulnerable are our launch sites. And so we have a deployable alpha capability that we would like to field. And with that capability, you can get resiliency through having a deployed capability in case any of the U.S. launch capabilities are inoperable. We are opening up a launch pad in Sweden, and that is the first time that we're going to take Alpha Global. But with our deployable launch system, we could take it to other places. So having the resiliency tied to the one-ton capability that is right-sized to counter threats that U.S. adversaries might put into low-Earth orbit, in addition to the 24-hour response timeline that we demonstrated on Biggest Knox. That's a combination that really supports national security very, very well.

Okay. Great. Thanks, Jason. And then my other question is on Elytra. With the first launch of a lunar satellite and with the second Blue Ghost, I mean, can you remind us the revenue model framework for Elytra, whether you can start revenue with that launch? Does the NVIDIA partnership enhance your pricing or revenue opportunity above and beyond what it was before? Just any color there would be helpful. Thanks.

Yeah. Hey, Suji. So that Elettra that's on Blue Ghost Mission 2 is recognized as part of the entire contract. So that Blue Ghost Mission 2, we want it for $130 million. We have a number of commercial payloads on there, including a rover from UAE and a couple other commercial payloads that are add-ons on top of that. And then the Ocula Imaging Service is another add-on on top of that as well. So that's all being recognized over time, as we discussed on the call. Great.

And Darren, does the NVIDIA partnership enhance your ability to capture revenue in Ocula?

That's definitely part of the, part of the Ocula imaging service, but I'll let Jason see if he wants to add anything to that.

Yeah, Suji, I think the way to look at this is Ocula on Blue Ghost Mission 2, we're going to be able to experiment and try out different modes, and not only are we going to be able to send the raw data from doing lunar mapping and surveying as well as sending space domain awareness data down to the ground to get processed even more, we're going to be able to demonstrate and experiment with AI on our NVIDIA module that's on the Oculus sensor using SciTech algorithms. So there's going to be a lot of new discovery, and those are the kinds of things that the Department of War, as well as NASA, are looking for more of. So there's more to come there. and that helps.

Thank you. Our last question comes from Liam Baker with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Hey, thanks for taking my question. It's Liam on from Mike Today. I wanted to ask more broadly about NASA's lunar plans in building a base on the moon. What do you think would be the most feasible type of power gen to power the grid for lunar operations? And what type of role could Firefly playing and powering the lunar grid?

Well, I'll go back to Blue Ghost Mission 1 when we successfully landed. We performed the 14 days of surface operations, which is the longest of any commercial mission on the surface of the moon. But we also had a engineering chase proposal to look at operating slightly into the lunar night. So using our in-house batteries, we were able to operate five hours into the lunar night and still gather data from that. So one of the things we can do in the future is just add more batteries as we collect solar energy from our solar arrays, and that will allow us to keep heating critical components like avionics and instruments on the lunar lander to last longer into the lunar night. So we can also scale our solar energy as well. So that's something that we've proven with Blue Ghost Mission One. But there's other opportunities like radioisotope heater units, RHUs. As you remember from the Mars missions, there's also other type of RTGs that can be used. So you could use nuclear-powered plants as well. Those are all things that NASA will want to explore more of because the essential things that you need to have a permanent presence on the moon are things like power and communications and navigation. And those are all things that Powerfly envisions to continue to support NASA with.

Thanks. And then lastly, on Blue Ghost, I guess given NASA's increased appetite for landers versus three months ago, how should we think about city-state gross margins once mission cadence ramps up? And I guess, has there been any changes to your view on Blue Ghost margins?

Yeah, we haven't. The only thing that's really changed there is there's been an acceleration in the program. Previously, we were planning to win multiple shots on goal each year, but now that's really accelerated. Our views on gross margins there haven't really changed. We don't really break out the spacecraft gross margin. I mean, spacecraft solutions includes Blue Ghost, includes Electra, also includes our software solutions business.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. And this will conclude our Q&A session. I will pass the call back to Michael for closing comments.

Thank you, everyone, for attending today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again when we report our next quarter's financial results.

And this concludes our conference. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.