Orbital AI data centers face significant economic challenges despite industry enthusiasm. A 1 GW space-based facility would cost $42.4B—nearly three times a ground equivalent—due to satellite manufacturing and launch expenses. SpaceX plans up to a million satellites for 100 GW of compute, while Google's Project Suncatcher and
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Designing and launching the satellitesThe space environment is not fooling aroundHow do space data centers fit in?Sort: