GoKawiilSpaceX’s dream for a million data centers in space is veering closer to reality than science fiction.
On May 29, the company submitted a filing to the Federal Communications Commission that answered questions about its plan. Ten days later, Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, sat down for a video interview posted on his social media platform X to offer even more details.
“Space is really big. It's not like space is going to get crowded,” Musk said. “These satellites are so tiny you can't even see them. They're very, very tiny compared to Earth.”
Putting data centers in space would solve two of the biggest problems facing AI companies face in the US today: 7 in 10 Americans don’t want them built where they live, and they use a staggering amount of electricity and water.
But while Musk likes to remind people there’s plenty of room in space, scientists have already raised alarms about the dangers of overcrowding in our current satellite ecosystem: Ozone depletion, an unsustainably high number of maneuvers and even debris from satellites falling back to Earth. What happens if we go from our current count of 15,000 satellites to one million?
Since SpaceX announced its plan in January, the space industry experts I’ve spoken with have generally scoffed at the ridiculousness of that number. “I find it very hard to see, but then I’m pretty surprised they’ve gotten to 10,000 now,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks satellite launches, told me. “Historically, betting against SpaceX changing the way space is done has not gone so well.”
Historically, betting against SpaceX changing the way space is done has not gone so well. Jonathan McDowell, former astrophsyicist at Harvard University
New details have emerged recently about the reality of this actually happening. In my recent interviews, I’ve noticed an obvious shift from disbelief to genuine worry. “That orbital altitude is not in a great state, and it wasn't in a great state two decades ago,” says Hugh Lewis, a professor of astronautics at the University of Birmingham, on the planned half a million satellites between 900 and 1,000 kilometes. “It's not going to end well.”
It’s probably not a coincidence that SpaceX is stoking the data center in space conversation right now, either. The company’s initial public offering on June 12 is poised to be the largest IPO in history and make Musk the world’s first trillionaire. AI-related stocks currently account for nearly half the S&P 500’s market value.
The timing of that IPO helped explain the slapped-together feel of SpaceX’s FCC filing, said Hanno Rein, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto.
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