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Space data center startup Starcloud has launched its first satellite into space.
The Starcloud-1 satellite launched this Sunday and has successfully separated from the SpaceX rocket that brought it to orbit.
About the size of a small refrigerator, the 60kg satellite features the first Nvidia H100 GPU in space.
Based on Astro Digital’s Corvus-Micro bus, the expected mission lifetime is 11 months, after which the satellite will de-orbit from its 325km orbit and burn up.
Starcloud-1 is primarily a test satellite, but neocloud Crusoe plans to offer "limited" access from early 2027 in a partnership with Starcloud.
Should the test go as planned, Starcloud hopes to build significantly larger data centers in space, and has pitched deploying a 5GW data center satellite powered by a four sq km solar array.
"Starcloud-1 is alive," CEO Philip Johnston said on LinkedIn.
"Starcloud was founded only 21 months ago, and this satellite hosts the first Nvidia H100 in space, which will provide high-powered inference and fine-tuning capabilities for other satellites."
He added: "We have successfully made contact with Starcloud-1, spacecraft is in 'Nominal Operations' mode, attitude control is stable, and tracking the ground station. Batteries are topped off. We're healthy."
Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and the owner of Blue Origin, last month said that he believes there will be gigawatt data centers in space in 10+ years, while former Google CEO Eric Schmidt this year said that he acquired rocket company Relativity Space to put data centers in orbit.
On Sunday, Elon Musk said that SpaceX was also looking to deploy data centers in space.
