Transporter-18 Tests the Building Blocks of Orbital Data Centers

PAYLOAD - Few rideshares come with a theme, but SpaceX’s Transporter-18—which launched Thursday from Vandenberg—had one: getting power to compute in orbit.

Three of its payloads are each testing a different piece of the ODC puzzle.

• Cowboy Space’s Reason-1 will attempt to beam solar power to Earth via laser—a test run for the optical links its future data centers will need. 
• Google’s Project Suncatcher will run AI chips on traditional solar power to see how they hold up in orbit. 
• Star Catcher’s Protostar will try to beam power between two spacecraft, with orbital data centers among its customers. 

“We passed the point of saying, ‘Will there be people doing AI computing in space?'” Cowboy Space COO and Chief Legal Officer Joseph Yaffe told Payload. “We’re focused on building the infrastructure for that.”

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Note:  Transporter-18 carried two power-beaming satellites for Cowboy Space, a company that recently opened a large production facility in Kent, as well as the first Otter servicing satellite for Starfish Space, a company headquartered in Tukwila.

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