China launches the first 12 satellites of a massive computing constellation in space

In a nutshell: A few ventures are trying to bring the competition for edge computing in space, where solar energy is aplenty and ready to be harvested. A Chinese consortium is allegedly going from theory to practice, with an ambitious new constellation designed to bring AI capabilities in Earth's orbit. While Eric Schmidt and other Western space entrepreneurs are still exploring the idea of orbital data centers, Chinese companies have already begun moving forward. Last week, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation confirmed the successful launch of the first mission in its "Satellite Computing" program, which aims to deploy thousands of satellites equipped with onboard computing capabilities. Members of the Satellite Computing project include ADA Space, a company founded in 2018, and Zhejiang Lab – a collaboration between government authorities and Alibaba Group. Other participants, such as SoftStone and Kepu Cloud, are developing ground-based data centers designed to work ... Read full article.