For all the hype about data centers in space, there just aren’t very many GPUs up there. As that starts to change, the near-term business of orbital compute is starting to take shape.

The largest compute cluster currently in orbit was launched by Canada’s Kepler Communications in January, and boasts about 40 Nvidia Orin edge processors onboard 10 operational satellites, all linked together by laser communications links.

The company now has 18 customers, and announced its newest on Monday — Sophia Space, a startup that will test the software for its unique orbital computer onboard Kepler’s constellation.

Experts expect that we won’t see large-scale data centers like those envisioned by SpaceX or Blue Origin until the 2030s. The first step will be processing data that is collected in orbit to improve the capabilities of space-based sensors used by private companies and government agencies.

Kepler doesn’t see itself as a data center company, but as infrastructure for applications in space, CEO Mina Mitry tells TechCrunch. It wants to be a layer that provides network services for other satellites in space, or drones and aircraft in the sky below.

Sophia, on the other hand, is developing passively cooled space computers that could solve one of the key challenges for large-scale data centers in orbit: keeping powerful processors from overheating without having to build and launch heavy, expensive active-cooling systems. 

In the new partnership, Sophia will upload its proprietary operating system to one of Kepler’s satellites and attempt to launch and configure it across six GPUs on two spacecraft. That sort of activity is table stakes in a terrestrial data center, and this is the first time it will be attempted in orbit. Making sure the software works in orbit will be a key de-risking exercise for Sophia ahead of its first planned satellite launch in late 2027.

For Kepler, the partnership helps prove the utility of its network. Right now, it is carrying and processing data uploaded from the ground, or collected by hosted payloads on its own spacecraft. But as the sector matures, the company expects to start linking up with third-party satellites to provide networking and processing services. 

Mitry says satellite companies are now planning future assets around this model, pointing to the benefits of offloading processing for more power-hungry sensors, like synthetic aperture radar. The U.S. military is a key customer for that kind of work as it develops a new missile defense system predicated on satellites detecting and tracking threats. Kepler has already demonstrated a space-to-air laser link in a demo for the U.S. government.

That kind of edge processing — dealing with data where it is collected for faster responsiveness — is where orbital data centers will initially prove their value. That vision sets Sophia and Kepler apart from established space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, or startups like Starcloud and Aetherflux that are raising significant capital to focus on large-scale data centers with data center-style processors.

“Because we have the belief it’s more inference than training, we want more distributed GPUs that do inference, rather than one superpower GPU that has the training workload capacity,” Mitry told TechCrunch. “If this thing consumes kilowatts of power and you’re only running at 10% of the time, then that’s not super helpful. In our case, our GPUs are running 100% of the time.”

And once these technologies are proven in orbit, well, anything can happen. Sophia CEO Rob DeMillo points out that a Wisconsin city adopted a ban on data center construction last week, something some lawmakers in Congress are also pushing. Anything that limits data centers on Earth is, in their eyes, making the space-based alternative more attractive.

“There’s no more data centers in this [city],” DeMillo mused. “It’s gonna get weird from here.”

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