Star Cloud, a company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, has submitted an official request to the Federal Communications Commission to obtain the green light to launch a massive constellation of satellites, numbering 88,000, into low Earth orbit. The goal behind this ambitious step is to create specialized data centers in space, dedicated to processing the computational burdens related to artificial intelligence.
### Data centers in orbit
According to the application, these satellites are intended to serve as orbital data centers, processing artificial intelligence tasks in outer space rather than on Earth. This trend aims to overcome the obstacles faced by traditional data centers, such as land scarcity, high energy consumption rates, and challenges associated with cooling operations.
### A huge and unprecedented plan
If the project obtains the necessary approval, these satellites will be distributed at altitudes ranging between 600 and 850 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, within sun-synchronous orbits. These orbits will allow the satellites to receive near-continuous solar power, ensuring continuous operation of computing systems.
This project is expected to be the largest of its kind in the world, exceeding the size of SpaceX’s Starlink network, which currently includes about 10,000 satellites.
The satellites will rely on optical communication links between them, in addition to integration with existing satellite networks such as:
* “Starlink”
* Project Kuiper, affiliated with Amazon.
* The “Terra Wave” system developed by “Blue Origin”
The company explained that the satellites will be designed in a way that reduces the risk of space debris, as they will begin their work in low orbits to test the systems, allowing them to quickly fall to Earth in the event of any malfunction.
She also stressed the importance of cooperation with the scientific community with the aim of reducing the impact of satellites on astronomical observations.
### Initial experiences and future plans
It should be noted that the company, formerly known as Lumen Orbit, launched its first satellite, “Starcloud-1,” last November in cooperation with “SpaceX,” equipped with an Nvidia H100 processor, to operate Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence model in orbit.
The “Starcloud-2” satellite is expected to be launched in 2027, with future plans including the construction of larger satellites equipped with huge solar panels that may extend to 4 kilometers, to operate space data centers with a capacity of up to 5 gigawatts.
