Sophia Space, a California-based aerospace company, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Redwire Corporation, a US aerospace and defense technology company, to advance the deployment of scalable computing infrastructure in orbit.
Sophia Space plans to combine its orbital compute architecture with Redwire’s technology solutions in deployable space systems, solar power generation and distribution, heat management and rejection, spacecraft integration, avionics, and systems engineering. According to a press release, the companies will explore collaboration through near-term demonstration missions as well as long-term orbital data center architectures.
“We’re past the point of asking whether high-performance computing belongs in orbit,” said Rob DeMillo, Sophia Space Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “The question now is how quickly we can scale it. Redwire brings the deployment and systems expertise that can help us move from individual missions to persistent computing infrastructure in orbit. That is the transition we’re building toward now.”
Sophia Space is developing computing infrastructure designed to endure the harshness of space. Its TILE architecture integrates high-performance computing with solar power and passive radiative thermal management for AI inference, data processing, and other workloads suitable for orbital infrastructure.
“The demand for global computing is scaling exponentially, and the advancement of orbital data centers represents an exciting paradigm shift where space infrastructure can scale critical capacity beyond the constraints of terrestrial infrastructure,” said Al Tadros, Redwire Space Chief Technology Officer. “As a leading space infrastructure provider, Redwire is translating the maturation of the orbital data center market into exciting opportunities to build next-generation architectures that could unlock significant economic value.”
The two firms intend to pursue opportunities in the public and commercial sector including potential programs involving DARPA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Space Development Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. Sophia Space and Redwire list concept development, joint proposals, internal research and development activities, customer engagement, and international market opportunities as potential areas of collaboration.
There is growing interest in orbital data centers. According to Bain & Company, if launch economics improve, terrestrial infrastructure constraints worsen, and satellite systems become lighter, orbital data centers could be viable. However, launch and satellite infrastructure costs remain a constraint on development, even if operational costs, once in orbit, are lower than those of terrestrial data centers.