{"title":"Firefly Aerospace vs Intuitive Machines: Landers, rovers & surface transport compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/firefly-aerospace-vs-intuitive-machines","comparison":"Firefly Aerospace ranks 13 on the Space 100 with a score of 83; Intuitive Machines ranks 15 with 82. Firefly Aerospace is ahead on deployment. Intuitive Machines is ahead on commercials. Level on production, progress, technology, positioning, firepower and leverage. Firefly Aerospace is based in Cedar Park, United States, Intuitive Machines in Houston, United States. Firefly Aerospace: Public, founded 2017. Intuitive Machines: Public, founded 2013. Firefly Aerospace is named in 437 signals and Intuitive Machines in 38.","companies":[{"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},{"name":"Intuitive Machines","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/intuitive-machines","city":"Houston","country":"United States","stage":"Public","founded":2013,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Intuitive Machines is a US lunar-services company (Nasdaq) whose IM-1 was the first commercial lunar landing (February 2024), with IM-3 through IM-6 in the pipeline, posting record Q2-26 revenue of $206.2M (>4x YoY) and FY26 guidance of $900M-1B (adjusted-EBITDA positive but still GAAP loss-making). Its backlog jumped to $1.8B (8.5x in six months) largely through four acquisitions, and it received an ATP on a $600M+ multi-satellite communications program, though much of its headline growth is acquired (the Lanteris deal) rather than organic. It is acquiring Maxar (pending), which would transform it from lunar services into a bus manufacturer and orbital-data-center player.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":15,"score":82,"tier":"member","scores":{"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":9,"commercial":10,"deployment":9,"production":6,"technology":8},"why":"Intuitive Machines builds and operates lunar landers that deliver NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon's surface.","segment":"Landers, rovers & surface transport","layer":"Planetary economy"},"signals_total":38,"facts_total":195}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}