Orbital Seeks FCC Approval for 100,000 Data Center Satellites as It Targets 10 Gigawatts
Updated
Updated · SpaceNews · Jun 30
Orbital Seeks FCC Approval for 100,000 Data Center Satellites as It Targets 10 Gigawatts
3 articles · Updated · SpaceNews · Jun 30
Summary
June 24 filings ask the FCC to clear Orbital’s plan for up to 100,000 low-Earth-orbit data center satellites, a five-month-old startup’s bid to deliver 10 gigawatts of space-based computing for AI workloads.
100-kilowatt-class spacecraft would orbit at 500-850 kilometers, carrying roughly 100-meter solar arrays and radiators and a dry mass of 1.5-2.5 metric tons; data would move mainly over optical links via third-party constellations such as Starlink.
2028 is the target for Orbital-1, its first purpose-built compute satellite, after a much smaller demonstration mission next year using a payload about one-hundredth the intended scale of a single GPU system.
Starcloud, SpaceX, Blue Origin and others are pursuing similar orbital data center constellations as land, power and cooling constraints tighten on Earth, though Orbital says full deployment would likely stretch well into the next decade and depend heavily on Starship.
Can orbital data centers costing eight times more truly solve the AI energy crisis on Earth?
With plans for millions of new satellites, who will save low Earth orbit from becoming a catastrophic junk yard?
Launching AI Compute into Orbit: The $1 Trillion Market, Engineering Barriers, and Regulatory Risks of Space-Based Data Centers
Overview
Orbital, a Los Angeles-based startup, has secured $5 million in pre-seed funding to launch a bold new era of AI infrastructure by building a constellation of up to 100,000 data center satellites in space. This funding will support the development of orbital data centers aiming for 10 gigawatts of computing power. The company plans a demonstration mission in early 2027 using Nvidia Blackwell chips, followed by the launch of its first full satellite, Orbital-1, in 2028. Investors are watching the AI1 test satellite launches in 2027 as a crucial milestone for this emerging industry.