Firefly Aerospace stock tanks 24% after test rocket explosion
A model of the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander during the company’s initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Firefly Aerospace shares sank more than 24% after its rocket exploded during a test flight on Monday.
The explosion occurred during a first-stage test flight of satellite-launching Alpha Flight 7 rocket at its facility in Briggs, Texas, Firefly wrote in an update.
“Proper safety protocols were followed, and all personnel are safe,” Firefly wrote. “The company is assessing the impact to its stage test stand, and no other facilities were impacted.”
The eight-year-old space technology company competes in an increasingly crowded space dominated by billionaire-backed ventures such as Elon Musk‘s SpaceX for deals with NASA and prominent government contractors.
Appetite is strong. Over the years, Firefly has partnered with NASA, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris Technologies. It recently won a $177 million contract with NASA and a $50 million investment from Northrop Grumman.
At the time of its initial public offering last month, Firefly was the third significant space technology to debut in 2025 after Voyager Technologies and Karman Holdings.
High investor interest led to an upsized offering, with an initial share sale raising $868 million at a $6.3 billion valuation. Shares surged 34% on opening day to close at more than $60. The stock has since pulled back 50%.
“It’s all about execution,” CEO Jason Kim told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on IPO day.
He said the company is laser-focused on its Alpha rockets to meet heightened commercial and national security demands.
Firefly makes rockets, space tugs and lunar landers. Earlier this year, its Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully landed on the moon.
Rocket tests in the sector, historically, haven’t always been a smooth ride. Firefly’s sixth Alpha rocket failed in April. Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration cleared Firefly to continue testing its Alpha rockets. SpaceX has also suffered mishaps, including a launch pad explosion this summer.
“We learn from each test to improve our designs and build a more reliable system,” Firefly wrote in its mission update.
Firefly 1 month stock chart.
Technology
Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’
Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.
Figure AI
Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”
Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”
The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.
In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”
The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.
Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.
The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.
Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.
Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.
The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.
Read the filing here:
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