{"title":"Astrolab vs Firefly Aerospace: Landers, rovers & surface transport compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/astrolab-vs-firefly-aerospace","comparison":"Firefly Aerospace ranks 13 on the Space 100 with a score of 83; Astrolab ranks 71 with 68. Firefly Aerospace is ahead on deployment, production, commercials, technology, positioning and firepower. Level on progress and leverage. Astrolab is based in Hawthorne, United States, Firefly Aerospace in Cedar Park, United States. Firefly Aerospace: Public, founded 2017. Astrolab is named in 45 signals and Firefly Aerospace in 437.","companies":[{"name":"Astrolab","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/astrolab","city":"Hawthorne","country":"United States","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Astrolab is a US lunar-rover company (Hawthorne, founded 2020) whose FLEX rover architecture and FLIP precursor went from startup to Artemis-critical when NASA selected its CLV-1 as one of two crewed Lunar Terrain Vehicles (May 2026, ~$220M; team with Axiom Space and Interlune, delivered by Blue Moon Mk1, deployment target 2028). Its FLIP precursor passed thermal-vac and integrated testing but its launch was delayed. Revenue is estimated at 10-100m class (the CLV award recognized over performance).","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":71,"score":68,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":6,"position":6,"progress":10,"firepower":8,"commercial":6,"deployment":8,"production":4,"technology":6},"why":"Astrolab develops lunar rovers, including FLEX and FLIP, for cargo, payload delivery and crew support on the Moon, including for NASA's Lunar Terrain Vehicle missions.","segment":"Landers, rovers & surface transport","layer":"Planetary economy"},"signals_total":45,"facts_total":47},{"name":"Firefly Aerospace","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/firefly-aerospace","city":"Cedar Park","country":"United States","stage":"Public","founded":2017,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Firefly Aerospace is a US launch and lunar company (Nasdaq:FLY) whose Blue Ghost Mission 1 was the first fully successful commercial lunar landing (March 2025), now executing five lunar missions in parallel plus the Alpha launch vehicle and Elytra spacecraft line, with FY26 guidance of $420-450M and a record $1.5B backlog. It posted the strongest space Q2 of the season (Q2-26 revenue of $117.7M, +659% YoY, its first >$100M quarter), made an $855M SciTec acquisition (national-security software) plus a Space-ng acquisition, and won NASA, Air Force, and Golden Dome-related work with an NVIDIA collaboration. Its revenue mix is shifting to recurring spacecraft milestones.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":13,"score":83,"tier":"member","scores":{"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":9,"commercial":8,"deployment":10,"production":6,"technology":8},"why":"Firefly operates the Alpha launch vehicle and is planning recurring launches from Wallops and Esrange, including two contracted Alpha launches in 2028.","segment":"Landers, rovers & surface transport","layer":"Planetary economy"},"signals_total":437,"facts_total":1592}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}