Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is getting into the space data center game

Blue Origin, the space group founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has asked the US government for permission to launch a network of more than 50,000 satellites that will serve as a data center in orbit.

On March 19th document After its submission to the FCC, Blue Origin lawyers described “Project Sunrise” as a network of spacecraft that would perform advanced computation in orbit “to relieve increasing pressure on American communities and natural resources by shifting energy- and water-intensive computing away from ground-based data centers.”

Blue Origin’s filing doesn’t describe its plans for the satellites in detail, so it’s difficult to know how much computing power the company aims to generate in space. The company notes that Blue Origin plans to use another satellite constellation it is building, called TeraWave, as the high-throughput communications backbone for data satellites.

Shifting massive computing to space is attractive because solar energy can be harvested for free, and once it reaches orbit, there are fewer regulations restricting companies’ activities. The entrepreneurs behind these projects envision a future in which AI tools are widespread and envision that much of the inference work behind them will be outsourced in orbit.

Many companies are already pursuing this idea. SpaceX has applied for permission to launch 1 million satellites for use as a distributed data center, while startup Starcloud has proposed a network of 60,000 spacecraft to the FCC. Google is also developing a concept for a space data center called Project Suncatcher, which will see its partner Planet Labs launch two experimental spacecraft next year.

While excitement around space-based data centers is high in the technology world, so are the economics of these projects It remains difficult. Technology for cooling processors and communicating between spacecraft using powerful lasers will need to be developed and manufactured at the lowest possible cost, while scientists are still determining how well advanced chips will perform on various missions while exposed to the high radiation environment of space.

A crucial area is the cost of launching these computers into orbit, and most are betting that the price of getting into orbit will fall due to SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which is still under development and could see its first launch in 2026 next month.

This is where Blue Origin, which has also been in the rocket business for a long time, may have an advantage. Its New Glenn rocket, which flew for the first time last year, is one of the most powerful operational launch vehicles on Earth. If the company can start flying and reusing them at a regular pace, Blue Origin could see the same kind of benefits from vertical integration that allowed SpaceX to dominate space communications through its Starlink network.

Aside from the economic and technological challenges, the space environment itself may pose an obstacle. Space in major near-Earth orbits is more crowded than ever, and the addition of tens or hundreds of thousands of new satellites will increase concerns about orbital collisions. Meanwhile, burning up thousands of satellites in orbit after they become obsolete, as is standard industry practice today, would likely affect the chemistry of the upper atmosphere, with researchers concerned about damage to the ozone layer.

The filing also lacked details about timing, but experts told TechCrunch that such projects are unlikely to come to fruition until the 2030s.