Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace is an American launch and space systems company headquartered in Cedar Park, Texas, developing the Alpha small launch vehicle and the Blue Ghost lunar lander. Founded in 2017 by Tom Markusic after acquiring assets from the original Firefly Space Systems bankruptcy, the company has made rapid progress across both launch and lunar surface delivery. Alpha achieved orbital success in October 2022 after a failed first attempt and has since flown multiple successful missions. Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander achieved a historic milestone on March 2, 2025, when it became the first commercially contracted lunar lander to successfully touch down on the Moon and complete a full NASA science mission — delivering ten NASA payloads to Mare Crisium and operating on the lunar surface for a full lunar day (approximately two Earth weeks). The mission represented a major win for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Firefly is majority-owned by AE Industrial Partners and has also developed the Elytra orbital transfer vehicle for in-space transportation services.