🚀 Google thinks Starship may need 1,800 launches to make space data centers viable

Google’s vision of AI data centers in orbit sounds futuristic, but the company’s own research highlights one massive bottleneck: getting enough hardware into space cheaply.

Google estimates that Starship would need to launch around 1,800 times over the next decade, roughly 180 launches per year to put about 370,000 tonnes of payload into orbit and push launch costs toward $200/kg by 2035.

Starship has only recently reached orbit, and it has never come close to flying 180 times in a year.

Google’s Project Suncatcher is already testing the concept. Its first orbital prototype carries Google TPUs and will run AI workloads in space, while future satellites are expected to communicate through laser links and eventually form large orbital computing clusters.

Google’s research suggests the chips themselves may not be the biggest problem, launch economics are.

@futurism 🧬