T-Minus Space Daily What’s the future of orbital data centers?
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Feb 16, 2026 
Lori W. Gordon, systems director coordinating policy and community for orbital data center development. Dr. Leon Alkalai, space-native data center designer focused on deployable structures and thermal solutions. Jason Aspiotis, leader of in-orbit compute demos and prototype nodes. They discuss Axiom’s ISS demos, scalable design and thermal/power challenges, optical links and launch economics, cybersecurity, policy gaps, and phased scaling strategies.
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Axiom's Early ODC Prototypes In Orbit
- Axiom has been developing orbital data centers for five years, focusing on compute maturation and in-space operations using ISS deployments.
- Two prototype ODC nodes launched with Kepler in January to run government and commercial workloads and demonstrate commercial cloud in space.
Designing Data Centers Specifically For Space
- Sophia Space designs ODC hardware specifically for space using large deployable structures to maximize solar collection and radiative cooling.
- The design leverages Caltech JPL work on deployables to embed compute into large-area structures so power and thermal scaling are native to the system.
Data Volume And Market Signals Make ODCs Real
- ODCs are driven by a real capacity gap: space systems generate far more data than current downlinks and ground processing can handle.
- Market analysis (e.g., BCG 2023) projects a multi-billion dollar in-space compute services TAM by 2030, supporting non-hype status.