How Long Can Firefly Keep Burning Cash?
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Firefly Aerospace (FLY) builds spacecraft for moon missions and launches its Alpha rocket. Firefly burned $106 million in the quarter that ended June 30, 2026, meaning the cash left after running the business and paying for buildings and equipment was negative. The company has now burned cash in each of its last four quarters. Before reading on, take a guess: if Firefly kept spending at this pace and raised nothing, how many quarters would its cash cover?
How Fast Is Firefly Burning Cash?
Firefly’s burn is shrinking relative to its sales. It equaled 90.3% of sales in the June 2026 quarter, down from 239.7% a year earlier. Here are the last six quarters.
| Fiscal quarter | Sales | Cash from running the business | Cash left after spending on buildings and equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 FY2025 (ended 2025-03-31) | $55.9 million | -$56.5 million | -$59.2 million |
| Q2 FY2025 (ended 2025-06-30) | $15.5 million | -$28.1 million | -$37.3 million |
| Q3 FY2025 (ended 2025-09-30) | $30.8 million | -$53.0 million | -$62.0 million |
| Q4 FY2025 (ended 2025-12-31) | $57.7 million | -$67.3 million | -$79.3 million |
| Q1 FY2026 (ended 2026-03-31) | $80.9 million | -$62.5 million | -$78.9 million |
| Q2 FY2026 (ended 2026-06-30) | $118 million | -$81.6 million | -$106 million |
Each row is one fiscal quarter. A negative figure is cash going out. The last column is free cash flow.
In dollars, however, the burn is growing. The latest quarter’s burn was nearly three times the year-earlier figure, and the burn over the four quarters to June 2026 was about 77% larger than over the preceding four. Management said the June 2026 quarter’s burn included a final SciTec acquisition-related payment of about $24 million. Sales are catching up, but more cash is going out than a year ago.
How Long Would Firefly’s Cash Last?
Firefly held $635 million in cash and short-term investments at the end of June 2026. If the company raised nothing and burned cash at its average pace of the last four quarters, this balance would cover about eight quarters. At the latest quarter’s faster pace, it would last about six. That pace assumes the SciTec payment noted above repeats every quarter, though management called it the last one. Management said Firefly also had $305 million of credit it had not drawn, which is not in those counts. Debt stood at $53.4 million, sitting far below the cash level. Put simply, the cash covers a year and a half to two years.
Who Has Paid For The Burn So Far?
Shareholders have covered the burn through new shares. Firefly’s diluted share count rose about 15% in the year to June 2026, while its debt fell over that year from $168 million. Selling new shares leaves each existing share with a smaller piece of the company. Management said the June share sale alone brought in about $182.6 million.
What Has To Change At Firefly
On the August 11, 2026 call, management said operational milestones drive its financials: the Alpha rocket reaching a steady launch rate, the ramp of its spacecraft business, and finishing development of Eclipse, a program Firefly is developing with Northrop Grumman. The quarter’s equipment spending included the expansion of spacecraft manufacturing and test stand upgrades for Alpha Block II, the next version of its Alpha rocket. Sales grew 656.9% from the same quarter a year earlier. The figure to watch is the cash Firefly burns each quarter. This figure hit $106 million in the June 2026 quarter, with Firefly’s next report expected in November 2026.
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