Overview
- Orbital said it received funding from a16z’s Speedrun program and scheduled a first in‑orbit test for April 2027 on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
- CEO Euwyn Poon said space datacenters are uneconomic today at roughly $7,000 per kilogram to orbit and that viability depends on far cheaper, high‑volume launches, with a full‑scale system targeted around 2030 only if Starship comes online.
- The proof mission will trial radiation hardening using Nvidia’s space‑optimized module to guard GPUs against particle strikes that can damage chips or corrupt data.
- Orbital’s prototype is a refrigerator‑sized GPU box with its own solar panels and a radiator, designed to run AI inference that can be split across many small satellites.
- Rivals are moving too, with Starcloud flying a GPU module in December, as analysts question timelines, costs, orbital debris risks and whether such systems will serve Earth needs any time soon.