SpaceX Seeks Approval for Orbital AI Constellation

SpaceX filed a request to deploy up to 1 million satellites to operate as solar-powered data centres for AI. The company said the system is intended to accommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI by shifting processing capacity into orbit, where satellites can continuously draw energy from the sun and reduce reliance on traditional land-based facilities.

“By directly harnessing near-constant solar power with little operating or maintenance costs, these satellites will achieve transformative cost and energy efficiency,” SpaceX said, adding the system would mitigate the environmental impact associated with terrestrial data centres.

The proposal outlines a network of satellites operating between 500km and 2,000km above Earth, linked by laser communications and positioned to maintain near-constant access to sunlight, reducing reliance on batteries. Instead of traditional water-intensive cooling systems, the network would use radiative cooling to dissipate heat in the vacuum of space.

The plan hinges on the development of Starship, SpaceX’s next-generation reusable heavy-lift rocket. According to the filing, the development of fully reusable launch vehicles like Starship that can deploy millions of tons of mass per year to orbit when launching at a rate, allows on-orbit processing capacity to scale more quickly than terrestrial buildouts, lowering costs and environmental impact.

While the proposal seeks permission to deploy 1 million satellites, a figure that would dwarf the roughly 15,000 satellites currently operating in orbit, SpaceX has previously sought regulatory approval for more satellites than it ultimately deployed. The company initially requested authorisation for 42,000 satellites and currently operates around 9,500.