WASHINGTON, 31 Jan – SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, intends to launch a constellation of 1 million satellites that will orbit the Earth and harness solar energy to power artificial intelligence data centers, according to a document presented to the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The document filed on Friday was published a day after Reuters exclusively reported that SpaceX and Musk’s xAI are in merger talks ahead of a blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) planned for this year.
The merger would give new impetus to SpaceX’s efforts to launch data centers into orbit as Musk fights for supremacy in the rapidly intensifying AI race against technology companies like Google, Meta and OpenAI.
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Data centers are the physical backbone of artificial intelligence, requiring massive amounts of energy.
“By directly harnessing near-constant solar energy with low operating and maintenance costs, these satellites will achieve transformative energy and cost efficiency while significantly reducing the environmental impact associated with terrestrial data centers,” the document submitted to the FCC stated.
Musk needs approval from the telecommunications regulator to proceed with the project.
While SpaceX is unlikely to put 1 million satellites into space, where there are currently only 15,000, operators sometimes request approval for a larger number in order to gain design flexibility. SpaceX requested approval for 42,000 Starlink satellites before starting to deploy the system. The expanding network currently has around 9,500 satellites in space.
SpaceX’s order bets heavily on reducing costs for Starship, the company’s next-generation reusable rocket currently in development.
“Fortunately, the development of fully reusable launch vehicles like Starship, which can deliver millions of tons of mass to orbit per year when launched at high frequency, means that in-orbit processing capacity can reach unprecedented scale and speed compared to ground-based facilities, with a significantly reduced environmental impact,” SpaceX said.
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Starship has carried out 11 test launches since 2023. Musk hopes the rocket, crucial to Starlink’s expansion with more powerful satellites, will put its first payloads into orbit later this year.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette and Chris Sanders)
