US startup Orbital plans 100,000 satellite network delivering 10GW compute
Orbital, a US startup, is planning to build data centers in space to keep up with the growing demand for AI computing power.
Their first satellite goes up in 2027, and the big goal is a network of 100,000 satellites orbiting between 500 to 800km above Earth.
Together, these satellites could deliver a whopping 10 gigawatts of compute power, enough to handle some serious AI workloads.
Orbital applied for FCC approval
Orbital's founder Euwyn Poon says their project is inspired by SpaceX's Starlink, which showed it's possible to launch thousands of satellites efficiently.
They've already applied for approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and plan to use SpaceX's Starship rockets by decade's end to cut launch costs.
While building massive structures in space still feels like sci-fi, Poon believes launching tens of thousands of smaller satellites is totally doable now.