Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin applies to launch 51,000 datacenter satellites
- Reference: 1773987287
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/20/blue_origin_project_sunrise_orbital_datacenter/
- Source link:
A Thursday [1]filing argues that the US Federal Communications Commission should approve Blue Origin’s plans because “insatiable demand for AI workloads” means orbiting servers represent “a complement to terrestrial infrastructure by introducing a new compute tier that operates independently of Earth-based constraints.”
Blue Origin also argues that datacenters in space will “enable U.S. companies developing and using AI to flourish, accelerating breakthroughs in machine learning, autonomous systems, and predictive analytics in support of broad societal benefit.”
[2]
But the company says it will be hard to build all the AI infrastructure we need on Earth.
[3]
[4]
“Space-based datacenters can help break this bottleneck,” the company claims. “The built-in efficiencies of solar-powered satellites, always-on solar energy, lack of land or displacement costs, and nonexistent grid infrastructure disparities, fundamentally lower the marginal cost of compute capacity compared to terrestrial alternatives.”
Those claims are hotly contested on grounds that the technology for orbiting datacenters [5]doesn’t exist and will likely be [6]unreliable and therefore impractical.
[7]
Blue Origin wants to build orbiting datacenters anyway and says its planned “Project Sunrise” will see it launch “up to 51,600 satellites operating in sun-synchronous orbits from 500–1,800 km, with inclinations between 97 degrees and 104 degrees, with each orbital plane containing approximately 300–1,000 satellites.”
The company says it will use optical links to connect satellites to each other and rely on another of its planned projects – the TeraWave space broadband service – to connect to terra firma.
[8]Chips... in spaaaace – courtesy of Nvidia
[9]Amazon tells FCC to bin SpaceX's million-satellite datacenter dream
[10]Orbital datacenters are a pie-in-the-sky idea: Gartner
[11]Galactic Brain space datacenter coming in 2027, pledges startup Aetherflux
Blue Origin has yet to launch a single TeraWave satellite and has only flown the New Glen rocket it plans to use for datacenter satellite launches twice. The filing says the company plans to launch the first of its planned 5,000-plus TeraWave orbiters before the end of 2027.
Much of the filing concerns the spectrum Project Sunrise will use to communicate, and how its plans won’t inconvenience any other stakeholders.
But it also points out that Blue Origin hasn’t filed documentation with the International Telecommunications Union, which also has a say in these matters.
[12]
Project Sunrise is therefore likely a long way over the horizon.
The Register suggests it may lose its name before it launches, as Australian airline Qantas [13]uses the same moniker for its plan to fly non-stop from Sydney and Melbourne to New York and London, journeys that will take around 20 hours. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/03/20/fcc_filing.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ab0o0GNGkE7gcy87yKHnAQAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ab0o0GNGkE7gcy87yKHnAQAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ab0o0GNGkE7gcy87yKHnAQAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/25/gartner_orbiting_datacenter_peak_insanity/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/orbital_datacenters_subject_to_all/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ab0o0GNGkE7gcy87yKHnAQAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/17/nvidia_chips_in_spaaaaaace/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/09/amazon_petitions_to_block_spacexs/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/25/gartner_orbiting_datacenter_peak_insanity/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/10/aetherflux_space_datacenter_2027/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ab0o0GNGkE7gcy87yKHnAQAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.qantas.com/en-au/onboard/fleet/a350
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"Maybe get Leo (aka Kuiper) working first Jeff"
Not to mention a couple of lunar landers and a space station - guy definitely needs his Weetabix. But then, this likely isn't about building the things so much as his eternal willy waving contest with SpaceX / Elon Boys will be boys!
He's a financier at heart and is going to throw announcements where he thinks investors are looking.
Cooling?
See title. Would write more, but sat would overheat.
Re: Cooling?
Scott Manley did an interesting video on this very subject the other day. I can't be bothered hunting down a link, but his YouTube channel isn't hard to find.
Re: Cooling?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlQYU3m1e80 for those who want it
("It will be taking that in from the solar panels, and converting it into heat... and cat memes" great line :)
Re: Cooling?
Skylab had a heat radiator fin of about 50m 2 which could dump about 4.2kW of heat into space. Granted, technology has progressed since then, but physics in the real world are much the same.
So with that as a starting benchmark, orbital data centers are a pipe dream.
Re: Cooling?
Skylab, like the ISS, has (well, had) to have a heat radiating system to maintain a human comfort level temp.
Computers can run hotter and the heat radiating system can therefore be hotter and work better.
Scott Manley's video went into it.
Even in Skylab's day, it could have dumped more heat if it wasn't for those pesky humans!
Not saying it's a pipedream or not, just that it's complicated.
And I'm not a spacecraft designer!
Re: Cooling?
The key take aways from Scott's video were:
The original artist's concept with a Giga Watt scale solar array was not possible.
A swarm of Starlink V3 sized satellites could be powered and cooled.
A swarm would be more spaced out than an ordinary data centre increasing latency and restricting the problems it could work on.
The increased distance between 'racks' also increases the power required for them to talk to each other, eating into the power available for GPUs.
Satellites in LEO must have a de-orbit plan. Starlinks have two: use the last of the propellant to de-orbit in days or if propulsion fails they are in such low orbits that they will de-orbit by themselves in months. AI satellites are higher up and without propulsion would be around for centuries - slowly fragmenting and creating a ring of debris that trashes other LEO satellites. To bring latency close to the realm of sanity the swarms must be densely packed. One failure in the swarm is an instant danger to the rest of the swarm. Right now each Starlink satellite average 2½ collision avoidance maneuvers per month. This proposal requires whole swarms to dodge while staying in formation.
Orbital data centres make sense for SpaceX. They have an IPO expected within months so some bat shit crazy scheme is required to bump up the stock price. Blue Origin is a private company with no plans for an IPO any time soon. They should be focused on profitable projects instead.
Re: Cooling?
Vacuum tubes?
They need to get up to over 1000K to work and they need vacuum...
"...a long way over the horizon..."
Over the Event Horizon, more likely.
Blue Origin (or BO for short, which is not awkward at all) is desperately struggling to remain relevant, and this application is more of a PR exercise than the first step toward anything serious that will actually materialize.
Re: "...a long way over the horizon..."
I hardly think Blue Origin is struggling to stay relevant. It now has proved launch and landing capability.
Doesn't mean this isn't a bit of PR or, more likely, a pitch to potential investors.
Nuclear data centres?
[1]New Small Modular Reactor agreements are part of Amazon’s plan to transition to ...world domination?
[1] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-nuclear-small-modular-reactor-net-carbon-zero
Six impossible things before breakfast
> ‘Project Sunrise’ needs a network that doesn’t exist, a rocket that’s hardly flown, and FCC approval
To build a system that is too inaccessible to maintain, for a customer that cannot be found and at a cost no-one can imagine
The unspeakable in pursuit of the unworkable.
Got to admire his optimism. Maybe get Leo (aka Kuiper) working first Jeff, then maybe start a second project.