WASHINGTON — As SpaceX gears up to start launching orbital data center spacecraft as soon as next year, astronomers warn those satellites could cause serious interference with their observations.
In a June 12 interview on CNBC, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell confirmed that the company expects to launch its first data center satellites in 2027.
“I think we’ll be launching the full AI1 satellites late next year, but we will be putting compute on some of the Starlink broadband and the Starlink Mobile satellites prior” to that, she said in the interview, conducted as the company’s shares started trading on the Nasdaq exchange. Those earlier “canary sats,” she said, would test technologies planned for the orbital data center spacecraft.
Earlier in the week, SpaceX provided more details about its orbital data center spacecraft, which the company calls AI1 after an earlier version, called AI Sat Mini, that the company discussed at a March event.
The satellite would be 70 meters long and 20 meters tall when its solar arrays and radiators are deployed. The arrays will generate up to 150 kilowatts of peak power, supporting an average of 120 kilowatts of computing payload.
