Firefly Aerospace Inc. (FLY) rose about 1% to $24 in Wednesday premarket trading, as investors digested a third-quarter report that beat Wall Street's targets across revenue, adjusted losses and adjusted EBITDA.

The quarterly picture included revenue up 259% year over year, a record backlog of $1.7 billion and a full-year revenue outlook that was narrowed to $440 million to $450 million.

The initial reaction to the release had been negative. The stock slid 3.7% to $22.83 right after the report hit on Tuesday, adding to a 2.5% decline recorded during that day's regular session. The modest premarket rebound on Wednesday marked a partial recovery from the post-earnings sell-off.

Q3 Results Top Estimates

Revenue came in at $110.7 million, up 259% from a year earlier and comfortably ahead of the $102.3 million analysts had expected — a beat of roughly 8%. The adjusted loss was 45 cents a share, narrower than the 48-cent loss projected, while the adjusted EBITDA loss of $69.5 million outperformed the $78 million Wall Street had penciled in.

Losses still grew from last year. Firefly's adjusted EBITDA loss totaled $46.3 million in the year-earlier quarter, and the non-GAAP operating loss widened to $78.7 million from $52.8 million — a reminder that the company is still spending more than it brings in even as sales climb.

The company announced the results on its official X account on Tuesday, November 10:

Firefly reported Q3 results, with a $1.7 Billion record backlog. "Firefly's third quarter reflects the power of our diversified and vertically-integrated business," said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. Read the full release and listen to the earnings call today at 4:00… pic.twitter.com/gbhp6qIRmE

— Firefly Aerospace (@FireflySpace) November 10, 2026

Backlog Grows, and the Rockets Are Spoken For

Backlog reached a record $1.7 billion, up from $1.5 billion at the end of the second quarter — an increase of about 13% in contracted work that has yet to convert into revenue. "We have more customers than we have rockets available in the near-term manifest," Chief Executive Jason Kim said.

Firefly also tightened its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $440 million to $450 million, from prior guidance of $420 million to $450 million, lifting the low end of the range by $20 million while keeping the top unchanged.

The results follow a volatile stretch for the shares. In the run-up to the report, Firefly disclosed an agreement with AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) worth more than $1.3 billion that covers 36 rocket engines over three years — a deal that turns Firefly's engine manufacturing into a revenue stream distinct from its own launches. FLY stock jumped 37% on Friday after that news and added another 17% on Monday. The company expects revenue from the engine deal to ramp up in 2027 as contract milestones are reached, with deliveries climbing in the second year of the agreement.

Even after those gains, the stock remains down roughly 60% from its May high above $60. Firefly is not yet profitable, and Wall Street projects positive EBITDA in 2029.

Total liquidity stood at $839.7 million. That sum includes $409.3 million in cash, $125.4 million in short-term investments and $305 million in available credit — the pool of resources available to fund operations while the company remains unprofitable.

Alpha Block 2, Eclipse and Moon Missions

On the launch side, Alpha Flight 8 is set for the first quarter of 2027 and will debut the upgraded Block 2 design. Firefly is also advancing Flights 9 through 12, with 24 Reaver engine chambers now in production.

Recent launch deals include two flights out of Sweden with SSC Space, as well as an agreement for up to 10 launches with Japan's Synspective through 2030. The company also extended its agreement with Lockheed Martin and won an additional hypersonic mission order — a customer mix that now stretches across Europe, Japan and the United States.

Eclipse, the rocket Firefly is developing with Northrop Grumman, has completed more than 175 Miranda engine hot-fire tests, accumulating 4,230 seconds of run time across 20 engines.

Lunar work is proceeding on five missions at once. To support the pipeline, Firefly has expanded its clean room to four times its previous size, with capacity for up to 12 landers and orbital vehicles.

Blue Ghost Mission 2 has completed proof testing ahead of a planned 2027 launch, and the Gruithuisen Domes mission is in hardware production for 2028. Firefly also landed a $75 million NASA Moonfall subcontract and a $13 million subcontract for NASA's SkyFall mission, its first Mars project. Under a separate StarCloud agreement, AI computing will be tested aboard the company's Electra spacecraft.

Looking ahead, Firefly will announce its 2027 Alpha launch forecast on its fourth-quarter earnings call. The 2027 calendar already holds several checkpoints to track: the Block 2 debut on Alpha Flight 8, the start of the AST SpaceMobile engine-revenue ramp and the planned launch of Blue Ghost Mission 2.