Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is asking the Federal Communications Commission for authority to send up to 51,600 data center satellites into low Earth orbit, signaling its entry into an increasingly crowded space race.
The proposed constellation, dubbed Project Sunrise, would complement Blue Origin’s previously announced plans for a 5,408-satellite TeraWave constellation. TeraWave would provide ultra-high-speed connectivity for Project Sunrise’s satellites — and for terrestrial data centers, large-scale enterprises and government customers as well.
Once again, Bezos is competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is seeking the FCC’s approval for a constellation of data centers that could amount to a million satellites. And SpaceX has already taken notice. So has Redmond, Wash.-based Starcloud, which is working on its own plans for a data center network that could call for tens of thousands of satellites.
Tech companies are becoming increasingly interested in fielding orbital data centers because such networks could bypass the power and cooling constraints facing Earth-based AI data centers. Last October, Bezos said at a tech conference in Italy that orbital data centers would be the “next step” in a transition from Earth-based to space-based industry. “We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centers in space in the next couple of decades,” he said.
Blue Origin, SpaceX and Starcloud aren’t the only companies involved in the data center space race. Other ventures that have expressed interest include Google, Axiom Space, Aetherflux and Sophia Space.
The competition to build and launch orbital data centers is distinct from the competition to provide high-speed internet access via satellites in low Earth orbit. SpaceX, which now has more than 10,000 satellites in its Starlink constellation, currently dominates that market.
Meanwhile, Amazon — which was founded by Bezos but is separate from privately held Blue Origin — is sending up satellites for its Amazon Leo broadband network (formerly known as Project Kuiper). Amazon is behind schedule on satellite deployment and has asked the FCC for a deadline extension, but the company says it’s still on track to ramp up commercial service this year. Last month, the FCC gave the go-ahead for Amazon to expand the Leo constellation to more than 7,700 satellites.
In the past, Amazon has highlighted the synergies that Leo will have with Amazon Web Services’ cloud and AI offerings. It’s not yet clear whether those synergies might extend to TeraWave and Project Sunrise, or whether Blue Origin might actually compete with Amazon and AWS.
In its 14-page application to the FCC, Blue Origin says Project Sunrise’s satellites would operate in circular, sun-synchronous orbits ranging from 500 to 1,800 kilometers (310 to 1,120 miles) in altitude. The satellites would be built in groupings with three different types of antennas to reflect a variety of coverage requirements. They’d transmit data primarily through laser links, and route traffic through TeraWave and other mesh networks to communicate with ground stations.
Blue Origin is seeking waivers from some regulatory requirements — for example, the requirement for a processing round and a six-year deadline for deploying half of Project Sunrise’s satellites. The company says such requirements could be waived because its satellites will be designed to minimize interference with other satellites.
Blue Origin has been listing job openings for satellite engineers and other positions for people with relevant expertise, including a director of commercial sales for data center markets.
It didn’t take long for SpaceX to file an objection to Blue Origin’s application.
“SpaceX submits for the record Amazon’s petition to deny SpaceX’s orbital data center application and requests that the commission apply the substantive and procedural arguments in Amazon’s petition to Blue Origin’s application to facilitate equitable and consistent review and treatment across both applications,” the company said.
Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston took note of SpaceX’s filing in a post to X, calling it “one of the funniest responses to an FCC filing of all time.”
“For background, Amazon opposed SpaceX’s filing, and then Blue Origin (both effectively controlled by Jeff Bezos) filed the exact same thing as SpaceX,” he wrote.
So, will Starcloud get involved in the dispute? “We’re staying out of it!” Johnston said.
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