Firefly Aerospace Inc.

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's Director of Investor Relations. Michael, you may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Hello there, and may the 4th 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 31st, 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 of 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 cislunar space. On the national security front, Firefly subsidiary SciTech secured an agreement with the US 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 Forged Missile Defense System. Within LAUNCH, the capacity-constrained market is driving increased demand for ALPHA following its successful return to flight. We also completed the VictusDM 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 SciTech's 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 skill 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, clean 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 successful lunar orbit, and our Blue Ghost moon landing and surface operations ignited the industry and the world. The moon is now a permanent destination. NASA's moon base 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 and 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 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 base 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 Electra 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 Isaac Mims' 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 clean room, which is four times the size of our existing clean room. 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 to 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 Grutheisen 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 Ghost 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 ELECTRA orbital vehicle. This Electra 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 Electra and autonomously transmitted back to Earth utilizing the NVIDIA Jetson 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's CineQuan 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 a separation from our Blue Ghost lander. This further highlights ELECTRA's ability to operate and deploy critical high-mass payloads across cislunar 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 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 inspector engines, ample fuel and payload capacity, and AI software. As General Saltzman said in his April 30 congressional testimony, speed, scale, and clear demand signals are critical and Electra positions us to capture that with responsive on-orbit capability. We'll continue to scale up our Electra 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 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 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 II subsystems. Additionally, in the first quarter, Firefly supported Lockheed Martin on the U.S. Space Force's Victus DM mission, performing two responsive space exercises to practice and advance emergency launch protocols required in a real threat scenario. Victus DM marks the second tactically responsive space effort that Firefly completed to date after our record-setting VictusNOx mission, which launched with a 24-hour notice. The first VictusDM 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 2 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 2 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 in 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 rockets. 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-NOx. 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 completed 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 towered 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.