Orbital is betting that distributed inference can scale as a constellation, with each satellite handling workloads in parallel. The company is also filing with the FCC for a larger constellation.
Lonestar announces first commercial space data storage service
April 2026: Lonestar Data Holdings announced StarVault, which it’s calling “the world’s first commercially operational space-based sovereign data storage platform.” The service launches in October 2026 aboard Sidus Space’s LizzieSat-4 mission.
StarVault isn’t a full data center — it’s data storage with “advanced cryptographic key escrow capabilities,” according to the announcement. But it’s the first commercial space data service that enterprises can actually buy. Lonestar says demand from governments, financial institutions, and critical infrastructure operators has already exceeded expectations, and the company has ordered a second payload for launch next year. Lonestar has already flown four proof-of-concept data centers to space, including two to the Moon, according to the announcement. This is different because it’s the first one designed for paying customers.
Atomic-6 launches a marketplace for buying orbital capacity
April 2026: Atomic-6, a space systems company in Marietta, Georgia, has launched ODC.space — basically, a marketplace where you spec, price, and order orbital data center capacity the way you’d order a rack from a colo provider. You can buy either a sovereign satellite, where you get the whole thing, or colocated, where you rent space on someone else’s capacity, according to the announcement. Atomic-6 handles spacecraft build, launch, licensing, and operations through a partner network. You just supply the processors and the workload. Delivery runs two to three years, which Atomic-6 is carefully positioning against terrestrial data center timelines that now routinely run five-plus.
Base configurations start with 1U nodes on satellites rated up to 100 kW. Connectivity starts at 1 Gbps. A sovereign rack runs $3.5 million a month, Atomic-6 CEO Trevor Smith told space industry publication Payload.
Nvidia joins push for data centers in space
March 2026: At the GTC conference, Nvidia shared its plans to bring AI and accelerated computing to space, joining a slew of other tech giants with out-of-this-world computing ideas.
