A group of environmental advocacy organizations is claiming that the race to build data centers in Earth’s orbit is not only potentially harmful to the environment, but it might also be illegal. In a petition filed jointly by the non-profits Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Environment America, and DarkSky International, the groups are asking the Federal Communications Commission to pause its licensing of orbital data center projects until “the completion of a rigorous examination of the risks, alternatives, needs, costs, and impacts of this sudden transformation of Earth’s exosphere.” Artificial intelligence hype has spurred demand for more data centers, which in turn has created an unprecedented data center buildout that has drawn ire for its negative economic, health, and environmental impact on local communities. The solution Silicon Valley has proposed in response to mounting public outrage against data center projects is to move them up to space. Elon Musk’s SpaceX alone is planning to launch an orbital data center constellation of up to 1 million Starlinks. There are tons more big tech giants like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and startups such as Starcloud that are eyeing ambitious plans in this new-age space race. “The proponents of these proposals describe their plans in grandiose, civilization-changing terms. But these same proponents have refused to embrace any inquiry into the impacts of their self-claimed epochal technology on the environment, science, economy, or other values,” the petition claims. “This is not just poor planning and a missed opportunity: it violates federal law.”