Space Data Centers: What are they and what do they aim for?

The number of satellites launched into space, both in terms of communications and imaging satellites, is growing rapidly, to tens of thousands in the next few years. The amount of data they generate and transfer is also increasing year by year. Most of the satellites are aimed at communications, and China has applied for permission to launch up to 200,000 satellites. Elon Musk, on the other hand, talks about data centers with up to a million satellites in orbit. In Finland, too, ReOrbit signed up to develop an orbital data economy. This article aims to open up the development and its causes and effects in a way that is understandable and factual.

There has been a huge amount of writing and discussion about space data centers at the beginning of 2026, especially after the announcement of SpaceX's solar-powered data center plan. Computing in space is not a completely new thing. For example, various scientific experiments are carried out on the International Space Station and computers in satellites control the operation of subsystems. However, computation has been limited, and the aim has been to transfer data produced mainly in space to Earth for analysis. 

It can be said that the brains of space systems have been located on Earth. An important area of development in recent years has been the development of satellites to be smarter

1. by changing their architecture to software-based and
2. by adding computing capabilities and artificial intelligence computing to devices flying in orbit.

The goals, causes and consequences of development can be examined through the following questions.
 

Is it reasonable to do the calculation in space?

Data analysis in space is not a silver bullet that provides a solution for all activities, and it is sensible to use it only in certain carefully considered applications. Imaging satellites collect a large amount of data from imaging objects with their sensors. Traditionally, they transfer this data to Earth as they fly over a suitable ground station. On Earth the data or image sent is analysed and converted into a format usable by the end user. In the entire chain, it can easily take hours, even days, from the moment the picture is taken to the final product. And at this point, it can be observed, for example, that the optical image showed mainly clouds, or that the event that was observed is already outdated information.  

If the satellite can process data and filter what is sent to Earth, we will get less but better data to transfer. Cloud images can be filtered out directly as unnecessary. For example, space situational awareness applications can be made and targets can be identified, also for military purposes. Communications satellites can process data, eliminate errors and use e.g. conversion from radio to optical communication, thus taking advantage of the links between satellites for communication. All the energy needed for the calculation is collected by solar panels, which operate more efficiently in space than on Earth. 
 

What is the aim of this?

Space computing can be used to improve the quality of the data being transmitted, reduce delays and react more quickly to detected issues. The goal is specifically to process data produced in space and the data communicated by satellites, i.e. the idea is not to push large amounts of data from the Earth into orbit to be processed. A software-based computational satellite is versatile and can be updated programmatically to perform various tasks without the need to launch new satellites to meet a new need. The ability to use links between satellites and data routing in space speeds up the transfer of data to the desired location without the need to be directly connected to a ground station from a specific satellite.

Of course, it is also a question of geopolitical competition and saber-rattling for space supremacy, especially between the United States and China. Instead of space warfare, the aim is to increase technological, economic and military influence through space capabilities. Europe is still a globally significant player, and it is important to increase its own sovereignty and technological capabilities, also in terms of space infrastructure.

Can space data centers replace those on Earth??

No, they don't. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, the computing capacity of satellites is modest compared to the data centres on Earth. The power produced by solar panels in a large communications satellite can be in the order of 20–30 kW - and a few kilowatts remain in the calculation due to the total energy budget. The ISS space station is large and has a power output of up to 240 kW. OpenAI's Stargate data center has a peak power of 1200 MW, and the other largest data centers under construction are also in the power class of over gigawatts. Of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plants, only Olkiluoto 3 produces enough power to meet the needs of one of these data centers. If a distributed system of large satellites with a computing power of 10 kW were created, 120,000 satellites would be needed for the computing power of a single Stargate. In total, data centers consume an estimated 2–4% of the world's electricity consumption, and the growing use of artificial intelligence only increases the percentage. 

If systems of hundreds of thousands of satellites were implemented in space, we would end up with very challenging space traffic management and constant evasions. In 2025, Starlink's satellites made about 40 evasive maneuvers per satellite, a total of 300,000 evasions. Space security is largely based on the ability to anticipate, and the risks increase as the number of evasive maneuvers increases rapidly. Satellite launches are expensive and maintenance is very expensive or impossible (cf. replacing a faulty server in a data center). Electronics must also be more expensive in orbit and resistant to cosmic radiation.
 

Conclusion

Computing will certainly be done more and more in space and it will be used to process space data. However, most of the computing used by the services used on Earth takes place on Earth now and in the future.