Firefly Aerospace prices shares at $45, above the expected range

Houston Chronicle/hearst Newspapers | Hearst Newspapers | Getty ImagesFirefly Aerospace priced s in its IPO at $45 on Wednesday, above its expected range.The Texas-based rocket maker will debut on the Nasdaq Thursday under the ticker symbol "FLY." The offering raised $868 million and values the company at $6.3 billion.Firefly filed its initial spectus in July and upped its IPO range this week to $41 to $43 a , from an initial range of $35 to $39.The space nology sector has seen rising investor interest over the last few years as billionaire investors such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos put their money behind SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively.So far this year, space nology companies Voyager nology and Karman Holdings have gone public.The broader IPO landscape has also seen major public debuts this year from Figma, CoreWeave and Circle as the market for public offerings reopens ing a longed drought.Read more CNBC newsMusk says Tesla is training an upgraded Full Self-Driving model which could be released next monthU.S. charges two Chinese nationals for illegally shipping Nvidia AI chips to ChinaPalo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora confronts Wall Street skeptics after company's biggest bet yetOpendoor tanks after earnings as CEO thanks new investors for 'increased visibility'Firefly creates lunar landers, rockets and space nology, and won a $177 million contract with NASA last month

Earlier this year, the company successfully landed its lunar lander known as Blue Ghost on the moon.The company has worked with key defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and L3Harris

Northrop Grumman invested $50 million in Firefly earlier this year.For the quarter that in March, Firefly reported a net loss of $60.1 million, widening from $52.8 million in the year-ago period