Firefly Stock Pops After Lunar Payload Deal With Volta
Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY) shares are trading higher Wednesday after the company announced a new commercial payload agreement with Volta Space Technologies to host a wireless power receiver on Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander on the far side of the Moon.
- Firefly Aerospace shares are powering higher. Why is FLY stock up today?
What To Know: Firefly said it will carry Volta's LightPort wireless power receiver on its Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander as part of a technology demonstration for Volta's planned lunar power network, called LightGrid. The system is designed to collect solar energy via satellites in lunar orbit and beam it by laser to receivers on landers, rovers and other surface infrastructure.
The payload will validate Volta's LightPort design and demonstrate how lunar surface users could connect to LightGrid for power. Firefly said the mission will also test integration of Volta's laser-receiver system into centralized surface power architectures to enable local surface-to-surface power distribution and provide redundant power capabilities as the lunar ecosystem develops.
Firefly noted the mission will now include six payloads from five countries, including NASA's LuSEE-Night radio telescope and User Terminal, the European Space Agency's Lunar Pathfinder satellite, the UAE's Rashid Rover 2 and Fleet Space Technologies' SPIDER payload.
Blue Ghost Mission 2 will also mark the start of Firefly's Ocula lunar imaging service through its Elytra Dark vehicle, which will operate in lunar orbit for more than five years to provide ultraviolet and visible-spectrum imaging for mineral identification, landing-site mapping and cislunar situational awareness.
The company said qualification testing for the fully stacked Blue Ghost and Elytra spacecraft is underway, and most payloads have been accepted and tested at Firefly's spacecraft facility.
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FLY Price Action: At the time of writing, Firefly shares are trading 6.99% higher at $20.83, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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