When Firefly Aerospace conducted its first successful launch last October, CEO Bill Weber,

brand new, just a month on the job, told me the milestone would be just the beginning.

And then when we're ready and when we can actually do what we say we can do,

then we'll sign contracts and we'll sign agreements that give them a manifest

and give us the assurance that they have a payload that needs to go up.

And so that work is going like gangbusters right now.

Since that podcast appearance nine months ago, the startup has been busy.

Firefly has doubled its manufacturing facilities, Inced deals with NASA, the U.S. Space Force,

and Lockheed Martin, and now is on the cusp of raising more cash.

You know we were involved in capital raise.

We've got some really good news that we're going to be announcing soon.

That's coming to a close. We're oversubscribed and it was an up around for Firefly.

On this episode we talk about Firefly strategy to diversify, recent acquisitions,

including some assets of bankrupt virgin orbit,

and even plans to go public.

I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space.

It's like where to start. I guess let's start with Alpha. Yeah, yeah. Alpha. So I think we may have joked the last time we got together that that was literally within the first 30 days that

I took over as CEO and we got Alpha into orbit. I think I probably made the joke that maybe wasn't as funny to everybody what I made it.

There's nothing, this isn't that hard, right?

I mean, I've only been in place 30 days.

What Alpha's doing now, though,

the intention's never to do it once.

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