Yahoo Finance

Following the SpaceX playbook: Inside Firefly’s Rocket Ranch

The $630 billion space industry is expected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035, according to the World Economic Forum. Much of that growth will come from the emerging commercial space market, led by companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Many smaller companies are following a similar path. Yahoo Finance got an inside look at how one of those companies operates: Firefly Aerospace. Firefly has multiple facilities outside Austin, TX, and recently doubled the size of its 200-acre rocket ranch to automate large portions of production and reduce costs. Firefly’s mission is to become an end-to-end space transportation company. The company is manufacturing rockets, including an upcoming medium launch vehicle in partnership with Northrop Grumman (NOC), orbital vehicles to service spacecraft on their missions, and landers. One of those landers, Blue Ghost, is set to become the third American commercial spacecraft to attempt a lunar landing later this year. That mission is backed by a $112 million NASA grant, part of the agency’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, aimed at developing reliable transportation options to the moon for supplies and research—a step in the Artemis mission to put humans back on the moon. If you’re going to future-proof your portfolio, you need to know what’s NEXT. In this series, Yahoo Finance will feature stories that give a glimpse at the future, and show how companies are making big moves today that will matter tomorrow. For more on our NEXT series, click here, and tune in to Yahoo Finance Live for more expert insight and the latest market action, Monday through Friday.