A vapor cone forms as the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches at 7:48 AM from Launch Complex 40 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on May 25. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
Imagine if one company could become the railroad, electric utility and cloud-computing provider of the emerging space economy. That potential fueled excitement around the long-anticipated initial public offering of SpaceX. Investors are not simply betting on rockets anymore. They are betting on an entire orbital ecosystem.
Among the most ambitious and challenging ideas riding this wave of enthusiasm is something that sounds almost like science fiction: orbital data centers. SpaceX may be one of the most well-known companies seeking to build them, but it is not the only one.
The logic is seductive: Launch the data centers into orbit, where solar energy is abundant and land, water and local power grids are no longer constraints. As artificial intelligence drives an explosion in computing demand, companies are pitching orbital data centers as a way to escape the growing environmental and infrastructure pressures of Earth-based computing. Data centers often also face backlash from the public at having these centers located in their communities.
