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Orbital Compute

Articles (3)

Rendering of Sophia Space's orbital data center concept: gold solar tile arrays extending from a satellite bus above Earth, with one panel section open to reveal internal compute electronics.
Emerginganalysis

Sophia Space's Orbital Data Center Patent Trades Compute Density for Radiator Area

A worked example budgets 259 W of solar output per square meter of tile, implying a similar heat load. SpaceX's draft AI1 makes the opposite supercomputing bet: hotter liquid cooling and pumps.

Orbital ComputeAI Infrastructure
SCN Staff·
One solid data-center satellite with a glowing GPU module orbits Earth amid a field of faint wireframe satellites representing unbuilt, filed constellations.
Emergingnews

One GPU in Orbit, a Million Satellites on Paper: Inside the Orbital Data Center Filing Arms Race

Since Starcloud flew the first H100 last November, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Starcloud, and a five-month-old startup have filed with the FCC for constellations totaling more than a million satellites. The physics hasn't moved as fast as the paperwork.

AI InfrastructureData Center Infrastructure
SCN Staff·
A single LEO spacecraft in sunlit orbit above Earth, bus wrapped in gold thermal insulation, with two large white deployable panels extended on either side - the architectural form factor most often cited in two-sided radiator concepts for orbital compute.
Emerginganalysis

Orbital Compute in 2026: What Has Flown, What Is Slideware, and What the Physics Allows

Hardware has reached orbit and SpaceX has filed for a million-satellite constellation. Thermal physics, launch cadence, and bandwidth still push gigawatt orbital AI to post-2030, at best.

AI InfrastructureData Center Infrastructure
SCN Staff·