Starfighters Space, Inc. is a Kennedy Space Center-based aerospace company whose operating asset is the only commercial fleet of flight-ready F-104 Starfighter supersonic jets in the world, and whose stated direction is to convert that fleet into an air-launch platform for suborbital research missions and, eventually, small payloads to low Earth orbit. The quarter that just closed is the first in which the pivot and the balance sheet each produced a clean signal: a fully impaired five-dollar aircraft deposit and a going-concern note on the one hand, a closed fifteen-million-dollar private placement and a sub-one-dollar-per-share cash position on the other.
Two numbers define the quarter. The second-quarter net loss of $11.5 million, roughly six times the year-ago loss of $1.9 million, is dominated by a one-time $5.15 million impairment of the deposit paid under the failed Aerovision aircraft agreement and by $2.67 million of stock-based compensation embedded in selling, general and administrative expense. Against that loss, the company ended June with $21.7 million of short-term investments and total liquidity of $23.1 million, up from $4.6 million of cash at year-end, after the May PIPE added $17.5 million of gross proceeds.
The forward question is whether the first commercial launch and the five-mission test program scheduled for the second half of 2026 can convert a cash base that management itself says is inadequate for the next twelve months.