Musk's Starlink Gives Space Lenders a Crisis of Confidence
In September, Elon Musk wrote on X — the social media platform he owns — that SpaceX 's Starlink constitutes roughly two-thirds of all active Earth satellites. Since then, the world's richest man has become one of the most influential advisers in the White House, deepening concerns among competitors and their investors that SpaceX may become even more dominant in the sector.
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Should You Buy FLY Stock after the Firefly Aerospace IPO?
The IPO market has been hot this year with companies like Circle (CRCL) and CoreWeave (CRWV) making blockbuster debuts. The latest to join this list is Firefly Aerospace (FLY), a space and defense technology company. Closing at $60.35 on Aug. 7, much above its expected IPO price range of $41 to $43, shares of the company have corrected to trade near $54 currently. Thus, the question remains whether investors should look beyond the volatility of the share price and add Firefly to their portfolios. Let's find out. More News from Barchart Tesla Is Axing Its Dojo Supercomputer Plans. What Does That Mean for TSLA Stock Here? Dear CoreWeave Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendars for August 14 This High-Yield (7%) Dividend Stock Is Down Significantly in 2025. Should You Buy the Dip? Stop Missing Market Moves: Get the FREE Barchart Brief – your midday dose of stock movers, trending sectors, and actionable trade ideas, delivered right to your inbox. Sign Up Now! About Firefly Aerospace Founded in 2014, Firefly develops small- to medium-lift rockets, lunar landers, and on-orbit infrastructure. Its mission is to make space missions affordable, reliable, and end-to-end, spanning Earth launch to lunar surface operations. Firefly counts some key defense contractors such as L3Harris (LHX), Northrop Grumman (NOC), and Lockheed Martin (LMT) as its partners. Increasing Revenues, Widening Losses Firefly has seen its revenues multiply but losses widen as well over the past year. For the quarter ended March 31, 2025, Firefly's revenues stood at $55.86 million. This was almost 7 times higher than the previous year's figure of $8.32 million. Spacecraft solutions revenue surged to $50.69 million from $7.01 million in the prior year, and launch revenue of $5.17 million was much higher than the prior year's $1.30 million as well. In 2024, the company reported revenues of $60.79 million for the full year, up from $55.23 million in 2023. Net losses widened to $60.09 million in the quarter from $52.77 million in the year-ago period. On a per stock basis, the losses were at $1.65 compared to $1.43 in the previous year. 2024 saw the company report losses of $231.13 million compared to $135.46 million in 2023. Coming to its backlog, a key indicator of the demand for a company's solutions, it stood at $1.12 billion at the end of March 31, 2025. This was double the previous year's figure of $559.37 million. Net cash flow from operating activities remained negative at $56.53 million for the quarter, lower than the previous year's $60.58 million outflow. Overall, Firefly's cash balance at the end of the quarter stood at $176.88 million, which was much higher than its short-term debt levels of about $8 million. Does Firefly Have The Wings to Fly High? The sky in which Firefly wishes to spread its wings is quite large. Overall, consulting major McKinsey sees space to be a whopping $1.8 trillion opportunity. 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However, competition remains fierce in this domain with cash-rich names like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Amazon's (AMZN) Project Kuiper in the fray along with direct competitors such as Rocket Labs (RKLB) and Intuitive Machines (LUNR). Further, space is a capital-intensive industry where the margin of error is minuscule. Thus, any product failure exposes the company to a significant decline. The Bottom Line on FLY Stock Firefly Aerospace's impressive IPO and rapidly growing revenues highlight its strong positioning. However, widening losses, steep competition from industry giants, and the high-risk, capital-intensive nature of the space industry mean the stock may face turbulence ahead. Investors will need to weigh its long-term growth potential against near-term financial volatility. On the date of publication, Pathikrit Bose did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤
The Verge
2 hours ago
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Starlink Mini users just lost their beloved pause feature
Starlink now charges $5 a month to pause its high-speed, low-latency internet service, a feature that used to be available for free. It affects Roam, Residential, and Priority subscribers in the US, most of Europe, and Canada with lots of exceptions. SpaceX hilariously calls it an upgrade, but I call it a bait and switch for anyone that bought a Starlink Mini with that 'pay as you go' promise. The free pause feature has been replaced with a $5/month (or €5/month) Standby Mode that comes with 'unlimited low-speed data' that's 'perfect for backup connectivity and emergency use,' according to the email sent to subscribers. Some early testing I've seen on Reddit suggests speeds of about 0.5Mbps down when Standby is active, compared to over 100Mbps I usually see on the Roam service. SpaceX has always positioned the Starlink Mini on Roam subscriptions as a 'pay as you go' service, ideal for 'infrequent and individual travel' and 'RVers, campers, travelers, and working on the go.' These are activities that typically have start and end dates. The updated landing page still calls it 'pay as you go' with the inclusion of 'a small monthly fee.' Come on. The best thing about owning a $499 / €299 Starlink Mini is having space internet in a battery-powered device that slips into a backpack. The second best thing was being able to pause it and pay nothing when you return home. Even the paused subscription could be reactivated in just a few minutes in case the broadband connection at home went down. If you — like many — bought a Starlink Mini just for summer travels, it'll now cost you an extra $45 a year for zero added value. The one caveat to all this can be found in a note from the FAQ (emphasis mine): We recently upgraded pause to include Standby Mode. Previously, the pause feature offered zero data at no cost. If pausing with Standby Mode does not meet your needs, you are able to cancel at no cost and restart service on an available plan whenever you're ready. Canceling adds more friction to the process by requiring a visit to the website and answering a bunch of questions while SpaceX tries to dissuade you from cancelling. Standby, like pause before it, can be activated and deactivated in the app with just a few clicks. Nevertheless, I just canceled my Roam subscription rather than paying €5/mth for a Mini I won't be using again until November. In doing so I received a message stating, 'You may not be allowed to reactivate in the future if your area is at capacity.' Sigh. Fingers crossed I can actually restart it when I do need it again. Or better yet, maybe Amazon's Kuiper Internet service will be live — SpaceX clearly needs some competition for relatively cheap and fast consumer internet that can be quickly deployed into data dead from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Thomas Ricker Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Analysis Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Space Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All SpaceX Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
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NASA has sparked a race to develop the data pipeline to Mars
For decades, NASA built and flew its own relay orbiters and spacecraft to ferry valuable data back to Earth. Now, the agency is shifting to buying connectivity as a service, much like it does for launch and astronaut transport. That pivot has sparked a race, with major contenders pitching ways to keep Mars missions online. What's at stake isn't a single contract: it's the data pipe to Mars. This new approach, which will mix NASA assets and commercial infrastructure, would gradually replace the patchwork relay network the agency relies on today. Generally, that works by orbiters like Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MAVEN that pickup data from rovers and landers, and transmit it to the Deep Space Network's (DSN) giant antennas on Earth. NASA's relay spacecraft are still healthy, but they were never meant to be a permanent backbone. The agency's latest senior review on planetary missions calls out MAVEN's critical role as a relay and provides steps to keep it available into the early 2030s. But eventually, this hardware will decay. At the same time, NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, which manages the DSN, is looking for solutions to augment these aging assets. The aim, according to an RFP released in July and due today, is to create an interoperable marketplace where NASA can be one of many customers instead of the owner-operator. The current request is specifically for capability studies, not immediate hardware buys. The ask is two-fold: a 'lunar trunkline' between the Moon and Earth, and end-to-end Mars communications that move data from assets on the surface, through Mars orbit, and to operations centers on Earth. It's a formidable challenge. Any architecture must contend with the vast distance between Earth and the Moon and Mars, long latency, periodic solar interference and Earth visibility windows, and high requirements for fault-tolerant systems. That's why NASA is asking for plans, to gauge how industry might solve these puzzles, rather than immediately jumping to procurement. While TechCrunch can't confirm which companies are submitting concept proposals, a handful have already staked their place in the race. Blue Origin just unveiled a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter built on its Blue Ring platform, pitched as maneuverable, high-performance spacecraft to support NASA missions to Mars as soon as 2028. Rocket Lab has touted its own Mars telecom orbiter concept, which the company says is a core element of its proposed architecture for the Mars Sample Return campaign. In 2024, NASA's Mars Exploration Program separately funded 12 short commercial services studies, including a trio of studies for next-gen relay services, to SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Blue Origin. SpaceX's proposal to 'adapt Earth-orbit communication satellites for Mars' will likely be derived from its Starlink internet satellite constellation. The long-term goal is to transform the agency's planetary exploration agenda from pure-science missions to a permanent human presence on the moon and, eventually, Mars. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
