Firefly Aerospace Inc. (FLY) surged 5.02% in post-market trading on Thursday, marking a significant 24-hour gain for the space company's stock.

The rally appears driven by NASA's expressed interest in boosting smaller space companies outside of SpaceX, with the agency recently awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to non-SpaceX companies to support its lunar base plans. Additionally, Firefly Aerospace had previously secured a $75 million NASA lunar mission subcontract, further positioning the company to benefit from increased government spending on space exploration initiatives.