Blue Origin’s Project Sunrise Aims To Put AI Data Centres In Orbit

Blue Origin has formally stepped into the race to build AI data centres in space, outlining an ambitious satellite network called Project Sunrise in a new filing with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

According to the filing, the company is seeking permission to deploy up to 51,600 satellites that would together form an orbital computing platform designed to support artificial intelligence workloads. The plan was first reported in the Wall Street Journal and SpaceNews.

Project Sunrise is described as a constellation of satellites operating in sun-synchronous orbits at altitudes between roughly 311 miles and 1,118 miles above Earth. The filing says each “layer” of the constellation would host between 300 and 1,000 satellites, positioned about 3 to 6 miles apart.

Blue Origin says these satellites are intended to complement not replace land-based data centres. The system is framed as an additional source of computing capacity, with the company pitching orbital infrastructure as a way to expand AI compute without the same constraints that apply on the ground.

Each Project Sunrise satellite would be equipped with solar panels to harvest energy directly from the sun. In its FCC filing, Blue Origin argues that this architecture can reduce the “marginal cost of compute capacity compared to terrestrial alternatives” for a few key reasons:

• The satellites are powered by solar energy in orbit.
• No physical land is required for the facilities.
• No grid power or terrestrial electrical infrastructure is needed in space.

Blue Origin positions the system as a way to support US-based AI development, saying Project Sunrise would “enable US companies developing and using AI to flourish” and could accelerate work in areas such as machine learning, autonomous systems and predictive analytics.

With this FCC application, Blue Origin joins a small but growing group of companies exploring space-based data centres, most notably SpaceX. Earlier this year, SpaceX submitted its own request to the FCC, asking for approval to deploy a much larger constellation up to 1 million satellites to serve as an orbital data centre platform.

In its filing, SpaceX argued that “orbital data centers are the most efficient way to meet the accelerating demand for AI computing power.” Blue Origin’s Project Sunrise now places Jeff Bezos’ space company in direct competition with Elon Musk’s firm in this emerging segment, at least at the regulatory planning stage.

For now, Project Sunrise is a proposal on paper rather than a launched system. Details beyond what appears in the FCC filing such as project timelines, deployment phases or specific computing capabilities on each satellite are not included in the information available.