The Orbital Cloud: The Operating System for Orbit.
The definitive source for the transition from single-use aerospace hardware to multi-tenant orbital infrastructure. We track the decoupling of payload from platform.
01 COMPUTE
PetaFLOPS
Status: Scaling Edge AI
02 TRANSPORT
Gbps Capacity
Status: Laser Mesh Active
03 UTILITY
Power & Hosting
Status: 20kW+ Nodes
APPLICATIONS
Compute
Transport
Utility
THE CLOUD ABSTRACTION
Launch & Logistics
In-Space Assembly
Servicing & Refueling
Hardware Ruggedization
INTRODUCING THE
Orbital Cloud
Orbital Cloud is the delivery of power / compute / communications / sensing as on-orbit services, enabled by modular, serviceable spacecraft, orbital logistics, and a multi-tenant control plane (scheduling, isolation, metering, billing).
Orbital Cloud is what you get when space stops being a
one-off mission and becomes a capacity platform.
Modular Nodes
Standardized, swappable subsystems so vehicles can evolve without full replacement.
Logistics & Servicing
Refuel, repair, upgrade, and reposition—turning maintenance into a repeatable operation.
Orchestration & Metering
The system that schedules resources, enforces isolation, meters usage, and supports billing.
The Convergence
Three structural shifts have aligned to transform space from a destination into a utility.
Launch Abundance
Heavy lift vehicles (Starship, New Glenn) and flat-pack logistics are collapsing the cost of orbit, shifting constraints from Mass ($/kg) to Volume and Power.
Robotic Permanence
Standard interfaces (iSSI) and refueling ports (RAFTI) allow assets to be assembled, repaired, and upgraded. We move from Disposable Missions to Permanent Infrastructure.
Data Gravity
Sensors are generating more data than can be downlinked. The only economic solution is Orbital Edge AI—processing data at the source to sell insights, not pixels.
The Structural Pivot
The transition from single-use aerospace hardware to multi-tenant orbital infrastructure.
Space 1.0 (The Hardware Era)
Manufacturing Model
The Hardware Era
Unit of Trade
The Satellite (Box)
Ownership
Dedicated / Owned & Operated
Financial Model
CapEx (Asset Heavy)
Lifecycle
Expendable (Launch → Burn)
The Flaw: "Optimized for Launch Survival."
Space 2.0 (The Cloud Era)
Utility Model
The Cloud Era
Unit of Trade
Capacity (Compute / Power / Transport)
Ownership
Shared / Multi-Tenant
Financial Model
OpEx (Asset Light)
Lifecycle
Persistent (Repair → Refuel → Upgrade)
The Unlock: "Optimized for Yield."
The Downlink Bottleneck
Raw Sensor Data (Petabytes)
RF Downlink (Gigabytes)
The Bottleneck
Actionable Intel
The Orbital Cloud Solution
Compute Node Before the Choke Point
Orbital Cloud processes the Petabytes in space, so you only downlink the Answers.
The Orbital Cloud Stack
The Orbital Cloud stack decouples the payload from the platform. Customers purchase defined capacities (Compute, Transport, Utility) managed by a software Control Plane, moving from CapEx hardware to OpEx services.
Compute Capacity
The processing layer. Renting GPU/CPU cycles in orbit to reduce latency and filter data.
Edge Inference (GPU-Hours)
Batch Processing
Secure Enclaves
Model Hosting
Transport Capacity
The networking layer. Moving data between nodes (OISL) and to the ground (Downlink).
Laser Crosslinks (Gbps)
Low-Latency Downlink
Direct-to-Cloud Routing
Ground Station Access
Utility & Hosting
The physical facility layer: Power, Thermal, and Slots.
Payload Hosting Slots (U/kg)
Power Availability (Watts)
Thermal Rejection (W_th)
Sensor Tasking Windows
Data Services
The application layer. Finished intelligence products delivered via API.
Object Detection Feeds
Change Monitoring
RF/Sigint Data
Archive Access
Control Plane
The operating system. The software that orchestrates multi-tenancy, security, and billing.
Identity & Access (IAM)
Resource Scheduling
Node, Port & Modules Mgmt
Usage Metering & Billing
Compliance & Audit
The $50 Billion Service Economy.
Hardware is the enabler. Capacity is the product.
Traditional forecasts measure the space economy by satellites launched. We measure it by Service Revenue generated.
Our 2030 model projects the convergence of three distinct revenue layers: Intelligence (Data), Transport (Mesh), and Compute (Edge). While Intelligence provides the foundation, Orbital Compute represents the high-margin growth wedge that will define the next decade of valuation.
ORBITAL COMPUTE
+60% CAGR
The Growth Wedge
TRANSPORT MESH
$18B SAM
Secure Backhaul
INTELLIGENCE
$22B SAM
The Foundation
Vendor Landscape
The Orbital Cloud is a services market — outcomes, not spacecraft.
Customers don't want to buy "space infrastructure." They want compute near the sensor, predictable tasking + delivery SLAs, and results back fast at a good price.
This shift is already visible in procurement: agencies increasingly subscribe to data and services instead of owning every satellite program end-to-end. The market is organizing around service layers: data products, hosted capacity, delivery (ground + network), and the control plane (scheduling, isolation, metering, priority).
Bottleneck Dashboard
The constraints that will cap orbital cloud scale.
Active Constraint
233%
Supply deficit in Methalox Liquefaction across Boca Chica / Cape Canaveral
| Ticker | Role | Conviction |
|---|---|---|
| $SLNG | Liquefaction | High |
| $GTLS | Hardware | Long |
| $DLNG | Storage | Speculative |
THE ARCHITECTURE
Complexity, Abstracted.
From "Acronym Soup" to Digital Utility.
The space industry is fragmenting into a complex web of physical services: SataaS (Buses), SRaaS (Refueling), GSaaS (Ground Segments), PaaS (Payloads) and SDaaS (De-orbiting).
To the infrastructure provider, these are critical supply chain layers. To the customer, they are friction. The Orbital Cloud thesis is defined by the abstraction of these physical logistics into digital SLAs. The user provisions capacity; the platform handles the physics.
Compute
Transport
Utility
THE CLOUD ABSTRACTION
SRaaS
GSaaS
SataaS
ISMaaS
SDaaS
SOaaS
Orchestration & Metering
The software layer that makes multi-tenancy possible.
Control Plane Dashboard
Security Isolation
Multi-tenant security with identity and access management
Resource Metering
Real-time tracking of compute, power, and bandwidth usage
SLA Monitoring
Continuous monitoring of service level agreements
Billing
Usage-based billing and invoicing for the orbital economy
THE OPPORTUNITY
The Application Layer.
Infrastructure is ready. The code is yet to be written.
The iPhone enabled Uber. The Orbital Cloud will enable a new class of software vendors that don't exist yet. By abstracting space into an API, we create the conditions for 'Orbital-Native' applications—software that solves terrestrial problems using zero-latency orbital capacity. We have mapped the five most lucrative business models waiting for founders.
THE ORBITAL ARBITRAGE
The convergence of Starship launch costs ($30/kg) and infinite solar availability has inverted the cost structure of compute. We model the crossover point where orbital data centers become cheaper than terrestrial facilities.
Key Finding: Moving a 40MW AI training cluster to LEO eliminates the "Water Tax" and reduces OpEx by ~92% over a 10-year lifecycle.
MARKET DEFINITION
Space Cloud vs. Orbital Cloud
The market is confusing connectivity with compute. We map the divergence between "Legacy Ground Stations" (Gen 1) and "Orbital Data Centers" (Gen 2).
Orbital Cloud Investment Index
Loading stock prices...