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Firefly Aerospace (Nasdaq: FLY), a market leading space and defense technology company, today announced the acquisition of Space-ng Inc. ("Space-ng"), a leader in AI-powered vision navigation and autonomous guidance systems. The acquisition brings proven spacecraft software and camera hardware for Firefly's Blue Ghost landers and Elytra orbital vehicles, bolstering Firefly's capabilities to advance the future of autonomous space operations for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Space-ng's vision navigation software was utilized during Firefly's historic Blue Ghost Mission 1 to determine position and attitude, detect hazardous lunar terrain, and autonomously redirect Blue Ghost in real-time, enabling a safe, precise touchdown within the Moon's Mare Crisium.
"Space-ng's vision navigation technology proved itself in the most critical moments of our descent, allowing Blue Ghost to autonomously perform two hazard avoidance maneuvers and safely touch down on the Moon for the first time in commercial space history," said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. "This acquisition represents a strategic investment in both the experienced team and technologies from Space-ng that will continue to play a pivotal role in advancing autonomous space operations. We're proud to welcome Space-ng to the Firefly team as we work towards enabling regular, repeatable access to the Moon and beyond."
In addition to vision navigation software, Space-ng brings high-resolution spacecraft cameras and AI compute hardware to enable advanced space domain awareness, onboard optical navigation, rendezvous and proximity operations, and docking without requiring GPS or GNSS. Firefly plans to integrate Space-ng's technologies across its fleet of lunar landers and orbital vehicles to support its growing mission manifest, including three additional lunar missions under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, another lunar mission supporting NASA MoonFall, and a space domain awareness mission for the Defense Innovation Unit.
"Blue Ghost Mission 1 demonstrated what's possible with Space-ng's modern approach to simulation, perception, autonomy, and flight software," said Ethan Rublee, co-founder and CEO of Space-ng. "This acquisition allows us to scale Space-ng's products and apply them across Firefly's exciting vehicle line and mission roadmap. Together, we'll continue building an AI-first software foundation for the next era of space exploration and help execute some of the hardest missions in space."
Headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, Space-ng was founded in 2024 as a spinoff of Farm-ng, which began in 2020 providing AI-powered vision navigation and robotic solutions for the farming industry. The Space-ng team brings deep expertise in artificial intelligence, computer vision, autonomous systems, and flight software. Along with the Space-ng team, the company's co-founder and CEO, Ethan Rublee, is joining Firefly as the Chief Engineer of Software, and will oversee Firefly's spacecraft software suite.
As a result of this transaction, Space-ng will be fully integrated into Firefly. Firefly will continue to offer Space-ng's vision navigation and autonomous guidance capabilities to government and commercial customers under the Firefly Aerospace brand. For more details, visit www.fireflyspace.com/spacecraft-autonomy.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Firefly.
About Firefly Aerospace
Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. As the partner of choice for responsive space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with approximately 24-hour notice and the first to achieve a successful landing on the Moon. Established in 2017, Firefly's engineering, manufacturing, and test facilities are co-located in central Texas to enable rapid innovation and vertical integration for the company's small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles. For more information, visit www.fireflyspace.com.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" including, but not limited to, statements regarding expectations regarding expected benefits of the acquisition, integration expectations and plans, statements of Firefly's chief executive officer and Space-ng's chief executive officer and other statements regarding Firefly's future expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, financial condition, assumptions, future events, or performance that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "scale," "demonstrate," "may," "will," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "could," "would," "target," "intends," "support," and "believes." There may also be negative words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. Not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. The inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved.
Various risks that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed by the forward-looking statements included in this press release include, but are not limited to: our failure to manage our growth effectively, including the increasing technological complexity of our business, and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability; our ability to realize the full potential of the Space-ng acquisition, including that the risk that the expected benefits or synergies of our acquisition of Space-ng will not be achieved on the expected timeframe, if at all; the risks and costs related to the integration of Space-ng into our operations; the potential for delayed or failed launches, and any failure of our launch vehicles and spacecraft to operate as intended; our inability to deliver software on time or of a quality that our customers demand; the hazards and operational risks that our products and service offerings are exposed to, including the wide and unique range of risks due to the unpredictability of space; the inability to realize our backlog; the fluctuation of our operating results; adverse publicity stemming from any incident involving us, our competitors, or our customers; the failure to adequately protect our proprietary intellectual property rights; our inability to comply with our contractual obligations; and other risk factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained herein, which speak only as of the date hereof. These statements are based on management's current expectations, assumptions, and beliefs concerning future developments, which are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. We cannot assure you that the events reflected in the forward-looking statements will occur; actual events could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no intent or obligation to publicly update or revise any of the estimates and other forward-looking statements made in this announcement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall it constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
Media Contact
press@fireflyspace.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/754f3364-7256-4ed0-a178-5e0593d588f5
