Out-of-this-world fix for data center backlash could be on NASA’s horizon

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is backing a once-futuristic answer to America’s fight over AI data centers: Move them into Earth orbit.

Isaacman said Wednesday that solar-powered facilities in space could tap the sun’s energy without competing for the land, water and grid capacity required by sprawling data centers proposed across the country.

“Let’s take our data centers, put them in Earth orbit, take advantage of that free fusion reactor that’s out there for us and use that to ensure we do win the space race for sure, but the AI race, too,” Isaacman said in an interview with Nexstar DC.

Isaacman’s idea comes as voters push back on the data center boom. A Fox News poll this summer found 70% of voters oppose building AI data centers in their own area, while 79% said construction should slow to address environmental and community concerns rather than move as quickly as possible to maintain a competitive edge over China.

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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman testifies before a U.S. Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing. In a podcast appearance with Jack Gordon, Isaacman said the space agency has taken images of objects that could be possibly be UFOs. (REUTERS)

Half of those opposed said environmental issues, including energy and water use, pollution and noise, were their chief concern.

The idea comes with its own engineering problems. A.I. chips produce immense heat, and satellites would have to release it through large radiators. Operators would also need cheap, reliable launches, radiation-resistant hardware and laser links fast enough to connect thousands of computers spread across orbit.

That has not stopped companies from trying to turn the concept into a business. Google has called Project Suncatcher a “moonshot” to place its TPU chips on solar-powered satellites linked by lasers. It plans to launch two prototype satellites by early 2027 to test its hardware in orbit and determine whether the satellites can share data fast enough for A.I. workloads.

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Data center development is surging across Texas, with North Texas taking the top spot in a new global ranking of the industry’s leading markets. (Mikala Compton/The Austin American-Statesman/Getty Images)

SpaceX is pursuing a more aggressive version. Its proposed AI1 satellite would stand about 98 feet tall, have a wingspan of roughly 246 feet and carry up to 175 kilowatts of average AI compute, according to the company. SpaceX says it is building a Texas factory intended to produce thousands of the satellites as early as late 2027.

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Small-scale tests are already underway. Startup Starcloud launched a satellite carrying an Nvidia H100 chip in November and says it later ran a version of Google’s Gemini model and trained a small language model in space. Starcloud plans its first commercial mission, Starcloud-2, for 2027.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a twice-flown first stage launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Dec. 3, 2018, carrying 64 satellites to orbit on the SSO-A: Smallsat Express mission.

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SpaceX has also asked the Federal Communications Commission for authority to deploy as many as 1 million orbital data-center satellites between 500 and 2,000 kilometers above Earth. The satellites would use optical links to communicate with one another and SpaceX’s Starlink network. The FCC has accepted the application for review but has not approved the constellation.