Photo credit: Rendezvous Robotics
Elon Musk has a talent for bringing far-fetched ideas down to earth. When word surfaced last month that two of the new generation of space companies were collaborating, he couldn’t help but share his thoughts, even if it was merely to make a simple point about SpaceX’s intentions to build data centers in orbit. There was no fanfare, no extensive explanation, just a deadpan remark to scaling up existing satellite technology. In a world where the demand for processing power is constantly increasing, that casual statement sent shockwaves across the IT community, drawing everyone’s attention to that untapped resource – literally the void where silicon meets sunlight.
Rendezvous Robotics and Starcloud simply kind of took off. Rendezvous, a new firm born out of MIT labs, creates modules that can be snapped together in zero gravity. Consider them flat tiles, each containing batteries, chips, and wiring, and stacked into a rocket like a pack of playing cards. Once in orbit, electromagnets separate the tiles and then snap them back together, allowing them to construct structures that are far too large for a human to handle alone, or even a robot arm to operate.
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Starcloud brings vision and intelligence to the table. They want to launch a satellite in December equipped with an NVIDIA H100 data center GPU, a beast of a component capable of handling AI workloads. And that’s just the beginning: they intend to build a comprehensive data center with 5 gigawatts of power – enough to power a decent-sized city – as well as 4 kilometer-wide solar panels and cooling sheets. For comparison, the International Space Station’s solar arrays are the largest ever built, yet they only cover a fraction of its surface. Conventional architecture just cannot scale that large; it would require an army of engineers or machinery to figure out the arrangement, and even then, the equations would not make up. That’s where Rendezvous’ tiles come in, which have been layer by layer tailored to Starcloud’s huge grid – all without the need to manually turn a single bolt.
Photo credit: Rendezvous Robotics
Musk didn’t take long to provide his thoughts on the situation. “Simply scaling up Starlink V3 satellites, which have high speed laser links would work…SpaceX will be doing this,” he explained. Just boost them up and use the laser connections to start data flowing, and you’ll have orbital compute farms. The present v2s can reach a maximum speed of 100 gigabits per second to Earth; the v3 is ten times faster, with far more mass and muscle. SpaceX is launching dozens of these at a time on their Starship, and testing indicates that they will have their dispensers sorted by mid-2026. Musk made it clear that this is simply an extension of the hardware that has already demonstrated its ability to beam broadband internet to the far reaches of the planet.
The demand for raw computing is rapidly increasing, and the Earth is beginning to feel the impact. These facilities consume electricity and water like there is no tomorrow in order to stay cool, which naturally irritates populations concerned about the environmental impact. Up in space, however, the sun shines brightly and provides unlimited energy for free – no need to worry about electricity bills – while the vacuum of space handles all heat rejection on its own, eliminating the need for air conditioning or fans. However, critics continue to point out the high upfront expenditures and the difficult engineering involved, such as safeguarding fragile circuits from severe radiation and keeping all that data synced across long distances. But history has repeatedly demonstrated that when rockets become affordable and reliable, people begin to take them seriously – see how Starlink transformed a constellation of thousands into a money-making machine – so why not utilize the same structure to house server racks instead?
Photo credit: TU Dortmund / MIT Media Lab
Eric Schmidt purchased Relativity Space in May because he envisions placing servers in orbit, and Jeff Bezos, being Jeff Bezos, isn’t going to let anybody else take the lead on this one – he predicts gigawatt monsters floating around space in approximately 20 years. And then there’s Musk, with SpaceX’s unequaled logistics – he’s the one who can make it all happen. Caleb Henry, who analyzes the space industry for Quilty Space, says the indications are clear: when billionaires back a new idea, money follows, and the rules are rewritten. Satellites have been moving data around for years – telecom birds transfer messages, while earthbound observers take pictures and send them back home – but onboard intelligence has advanced to the next level. A dedicated data center is the actual game changer, processing inquiries in the void and returning responses faster than any landline.
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