Orbital Plans 2027 Launch of AI Compute Satellites
Orbital plans to launch a constellation of space-based data centers by 2027 to bypass terrestrial energy and cooling constraints for AI inference.
The Los Angeles-based startup Orbital plans to launch its first compute satellite, Orbital-1, in April 2027 using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Founded by Euwyn Poon, the company intends to deploy a constellation of data centers in low-earth orbit to remove the terrestrial electricity and cooling limitations that currently constrain artificial intelligence growth.
These satellites will utilize continuous solar power and radiative cooling to support clusters of NVIDIA-powered servers. Orbital is specifically targeting AI inference workloads rather than the training of large models. To facilitate this development, the company is opening an R&D facility called Factory-1 in Los Angeles and is seeking necessary approvals from the Federal Communications Commission.
The project is supported by funding from the a16z Speedrun venture program. The initiative seeks to shift compute infrastructure into orbit to scale with the potential of AI and eliminate what the company describes as the energy ceiling on intelligence.
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