Better Space Stock: Firefly Aerospace vs. Intuitive Machines

The rally in space stocks in the wake of SpaceX announcing its initial public offering (IPO) last month has proved that the space economy has some real weight to it.

What began as a rally in a few stocks when the news of the IPO dropped has continued over the past few weeks. But the SpaceX IPO is still a few months away, slated for July 2026 at present.

So, I think it's worth examining a couple of the space stocks that have been rallying since March to see if they're worth adding to your portfolio ahead of any shares of SpaceX you might want to buy.

Let's take a look at Firefly Aerospace (NASDAQ: FLY) and Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR). Both companies have potential, but right now Intuitive Machines seems the stronger of the two.

Image source: Getty Images.

Fly me to the moon

Firefly Aerospace led the initial rally when SpaceX's IPO news dropped. Firefly itself had gone public only a few months prior in August 2025.

Both Firefly and Intuitive Machines are spacecraft companies, and there is some overlap between their products. Let's start with the biggest difference: Firefly makes its own rockets; Intuitive Machines does not.

Firefly offers two rocket platforms. Its Alpha is the only operational U.S. launcher with a one-ton capacity and the first commercial rocket to launch a satellite into orbit with just 24 hours' notice.

Its Eclipse, which the company is developing with Northrop Grumman, has yet to be launched, but it is designed with reusability in mind.

The company also produces the Blue Ghost, which is the first commercial lunar lander to touch down on the moon, and three satellite platforms dubbed the Dawn, Dusk, and Dark based on how deep into space they're meant to operate.

In all, Firefly has had four successful orbital launches with the Alpha rocket out of seven attempts. Add in the success of the Blue Ghost mission for a total of five successful missions in all, about a 71% success rate.

That's great, but it's also the company's main weakness: It's competing directly with SpaceX. The Eclipse is designed with reusability in mind, but only SpaceX's Falcon 9 has proved it can reliably land and be reused.

SpaceX has also had 654 successful launches out of 666 for a success rate of 98.2%. It has already had 56 launches in 2026 alone.

While nobody really has the space-launch market locked down yet, SpaceX is the clear leader in the U.S. for private spaceflight. So, when you add in Firefly's negative 181% margin in the 2026 first quarter as measured under earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), it becomes a much tougher sell given the track record of its main competitor.

Intuitive Machines, on the other hand, is more focused on building infrastructure in space than building its own rockets.

To the moon and beyond

Intuitive Machines bills itself as The Space Infrastructure Company, and I think that's a fair assessment.

It designs and manufactures probes, satellites, and cargo spacecraft for low-earth orbit, geostationary orbit, and the Artemis missions to the moon and beyond. The company's IM-1 probe, Odysseus, became the first object to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

In all, the company has launched 300 spacecraft and has 100 satellites in orbit right now. And through its subsidiary KinetX, it provides navigation services for deep-space exploration.

KinetX is responsible for all the navigation on the Emirates Mars Mission, a United Arab Emirates effort that put a satellite called Hope into orbit around the red planet, where it's collecting atmospheric data. The company is also behind the navigation of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, which took almost 10 years to complete.

Closer to Earth, Intuitive Machines was selected by NASA in March to support the Artemis missions by delivering science equipment to the moon using its Nova-D heavy lander.

And the company is in the running to provide a lunar rover to the Artemis missions. No rover has been selected, but Intuitive is one of three companies under consideration for the contract.

So it has more experience with satellites and lunar missions than Firefly, and it doesn't compete directly with the most visible space company in the world right now, which also happens to be the most hotly anticipated IPO in decades.

Lastly, while neither company is profitable, Intuitive Machines is closer to profitability than Firefly with a net EBITDA margin of negative 53.43% last year. Intuitive does have a much higher debt load than Firefly, with a total debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83 last year to Firefly's 0.05 in the 2026 first quarter. It has a much lower loss margin as well.

It will likely be a while before most space companies turn a profit, but Intuitive is much closer to running a net profit than Firefly. So, if you're looking for a space stock to add to your portfolio in anticipation of the SpaceX IPO, Intuitive Machines makes a decent case for itself.

James Hires has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuitive Machines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.