Senators Want Pentagon to Tap in to Commercial On-Orbit Data Centers 

Senate lawmakers introduced a bill June 10 to require the Pentagon to consider how it might leverage the commercial space industry’s rush to build on-orbit data centers. 

The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), is dubbed the New Horizon Act. It proposes the Defense Department launch a pilot program to assess commercially available cloud computing and data processing hubs and experiment with integrating those services with their own bespoke data transport satellites and ground systems. 

“This legislation enables the Department of War to conduct operational testing on space-based data processing and storage, and will help to reduce latency, improve resilience, and enhance operational effectiveness across military and intelligence missions,” Cruz said in a statement introducing the legislation. 

On-orbit data centers would shift at least a portion of the space industry’s computing requirements from the ground to space, which would reduce latency by putting data processing systems closer to the sensors that feed them information. Faster-moving data means military operators can make faster tactical decisions, and as the Pentagon pursues projects like Golden Dome—which will rely on a sprawling missile defense sensor network—data latency is a significant limiting factor. 

The lawmakers say that as the military relies on increasingly large data streams, its existing networks may not be up to the task. Along with weighing the military utility and acquisition pathways for commercial on-orbit computing, the bill notes that the pilot should “evaluate concepts of operation for the protection and defense of orbital data center assets against kinetic, non-kinetic, and cyber threats.”

“Modern national security space missions generate increasing volumes of data from space-based sensors, platforms, and constellations, placing growing demands on terrestrial data transport, processing, and analysis infrastructure,” the bill said. “Reliance on ground-based data processing can introduce latency, bandwidth constraints, and vulnerabilities that may degrade the timeliness, resilience, and effectiveness of military and intelligence operations in contested environments. 

Several companies are pursuing plans to put computing power on orbit. Google plans to start launching test satellites in 2027 for an orbital data center called Project Suncatcher and SpaceX is eyeing a 1 million-satellite constellation intended to operationalize space-based computing. Other businesses fueled by rapid developments in artificial intelligence, including OpenAI, NVIDIA, Blue Origin, and start-up StarCloud, have also announced similar projects.

Space-based data center constellations potentially could accelerate data data transmission and ease existing bandwidth constraints; in theory, they also reduce some of the power and cooling demands that have made data center construction controversial on Earth. Data center satellites would draw power from solar arrays and leverage the frigid temperatures in space to cool their processors, an attractive alternative to building power- and water-hungry server farms across the U.S.  

If approved, the proposed legislation would require DOD to establish a pilot program within a year to explore the concept as part of the existing Hybrid Space Architecture program, an experimental project led by the Space Force and the Defense Innovation Unit to explore a possible multi-orbit network of commercial and military communications spacecraft. The fiscal 2027 budget requests $220 million for operational experimentation.

DIU would lead the pilot in consultation with the Space Force, National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The bill directs the Pentagon to “encourage competitive participation from a diverse set of nontraditional contractors and space providers.”