SpaceX names its AI Orbital Data Center satellite constellation

Elon Musk has settled the naming question for SpaceX’s upcoming AI Orbital Data Center constellation. He confirmed a trademark called "Starmind" that SpaceX filed as the official name for its ambitious plan to orbit up to a million AI-enabled satellites, a project that has been gathering regulatory momentum since the beginning of the year.

SpaceX filed a request with the FCC in early 2026 for a constellation of up to one million satellites intended to function as an orbital AI compute layer. The idea is not merely to beam internet to underserved areas, as with Starlink Mobile, but to move the actual number crunching to orbit.

Musk has detailed "racks of compute" that would connect with each other through laser links between the AI satellites, as well as with Starlinks, with data sent to the ground using antennas or laser links at low latency. Each AI1 satellite is specified as having average compute payload near 120 kilowatts and a peak around 150 kilowatts, with solar arrays spanning roughly 70 meters at an operating altitude of about 600 km.

The rationale for going orbital is pragmatic, as SpaceX is pursuing this technology while Earth-based AI data centers run into physical space, community opposition, and power or water consumption limits. SpaceX pegs unlimited solar power, natural vacuum cooling, and no zoning regulatory permits as Starmind’s potential advantages, while Musk expects space to become the lowest-cost location for AI compute in the span of a few years.

The first AI1 prototype satellites are scheduled to launch in early 2027, with volume production targeted by year-end at a new facility called Gigasat. It remains to be seen if that lofty vision will pan out on any significant scale, but the project now has a name worth remembering, Starmind.