Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is getting into the data center game

Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos, has asked the US government for permission to launch more than 50,000 satellites that will serve as data centers in orbit.

On March 19 document In a statement issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Blue Origin’s lawyers described “Project Sunrise” as a group of spacecraft that can perform high-resolution calculations to “reduce the pressure on the US environment and natural resources by changing energy – and counting large amounts of water away from data centers on Earth.”

Blue Origin’s filing didn’t detail its plans for the satellite, so it’s hard to know how much computing power the company plans to build in space. It notes that Blue Origin plans to use another constellation of satellites it plans to build, called TeraWave, as the backbone of high-speed data communications satellites.

Moving supercomputers into space is exciting because solar energy is easy to harvest and, once it’s through, there are few regulations to restrict commercial applications. Entrepreneurs who follow these projects see a future where AI tools are widespread and think that much of what follows them will be exported for circulation.

Several companies are already following this concept. SpaceX has licensed a million satellites to be used as data centers, while Starcloud has licensed 60,000 satellites to the FCC. Google is also developing an idea for a data center in space called Project Suncatcher, which will see its partner Planet Labs launch two demo instruments next year.

While excitement about space storage is high in the tech world, the economics of these projects stay tough. The technology of cooling processors and communication between ships with powerful lasers must be designed and manufactured as cheaply as possible, while scientists are still evaluating how many chips work in different ways when we encounter space.

The most difficult area is the cost of launching these computers into orbit, and many are betting that the cost of reaching the orbit will decrease thanks to SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which is still being developed and could see its first launch in 2026 next month.

This is an area where Blue Origin, which has long been in the rocket business, may have an advantage. His New Glenn rocket, which flew for the first time last year, is one of the most powerful vehicles in the world. If the company can fly and use it regularly, Blue Origin could see the same benefits from the merger that allowed SpaceX to dominate space telecommunications with its Starlink network.

Beyond the financial and technical challenges, the environment can be a limiting factor. The number of satellites in critical near-Earth orbits is increasing, and adding tens or thousands of satellites will increase concerns about orbital collisions. Meanwhile, burning up thousands of satellites in orbit after they are out of service, as is the case today, could affect surface chemistry, with researchers worried about ozone depletion.

The booking also did not have details on the time frame, but experts tell TechCrunch that such projects will not happen until the 2030s.