The Era of Orbital Intelligence: How Space Data Centers Are Rewriting Networking, AI, and Global Infrastructure
Abstract
Orbital data centres are no longer theoretical. The first nodes are already in low Earth orbit, and inter-satellite laser links are routing data through vacuum, where light travels 47 per cent faster than through fibre. This paper examines how that shift rewrites the rules of networking, AI infrastructure and global compute, and draws on experience building distributed systems at scale to set out what the architects of orbital infrastructure are about to encounter. It connects the physics to the failure modes, and both to lessons learned deploying hyperscale networks, tracing the engineering principles that carry from ground-level distributed systems up to the orbital layer. The underlying argument is that the engineers who will lead this work are already doing it: the location-independent, zero maintenance window problems they have solved on Earth are the same problems now being deployed somewhere nobody can drive to when things go wrong.
- Published in
- Proceedings of the Raptors Conference, Vol. 1 (2026)
- Conference
- Raptors Conference 2026, 21 October 2026, online
- Accepted
- 2026-09-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.68495/rc.2026.C056
- Presentation
- Slides are not yet available for this paper.
- Licence
- © 2026Omkar Bhalekar. Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
- Publisher
- Hackathon Raptors, Community Interest Company 15557917, London, United Kingdom
- Permanent address
- https://proceedings.raptors.dev/bhalekar-era-orbital-intelligence-space
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Cite this paper
Omkar Bhalekar (2026). The Era of Orbital Intelligence: How Space Data Centers Are Rewriting Networking, AI, and Global Infrastructure. Proceedings of the Raptors Conference, Vol. 1 (2026). Hackathon Raptors, London. https://doi.org/10.68495/rc.2026.C056
@inproceedings{raptors2026-c056,
title = {{The Era of Orbital Intelligence: How Space Data Centers Are Rewriting Networking, AI, and Global Infrastructure}},
author = {Bhalekar, Omkar},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the Raptors Conference},
volume = {1},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hackathon Raptors},
address = {London, United Kingdom},
doi = {10.68495/rc.2026.C056},
url = {https://doi.org/10.68495/rc.2026.C056},
abstract = {Orbital data centres are no longer theoretical. The first nodes are already in low Earth orbit, and inter-satellite laser links are routing data through vacuum, where light travels 47 per cent faster than through fibre. This paper examines how that shift rewrites the rules of networking, AI infrastructure and global compute, and draws on experience building distributed systems at scale to set out what the architects of orbital infrastructure are about to encounter. It connects the physics to the failure modes, and both to lessons learned deploying hyperscale networks, tracing the engineering principles that carry from ground-level distributed systems up to the orbital layer. The underlying argument is that the engineers who will lead this work are already doing it: the location-independent, zero maintenance window problems they have solved on Earth are the same problems now being deployed somewhere nobody can drive to when things go wrong.}
}
TY - CONF TI - The Era of Orbital Intelligence: How Space Data Centers Are Rewriting Networking, AI, and Global Infrastructure AU - Bhalekar, Omkar T2 - Proceedings of the Raptors Conference VL - 1 PY - 2026 DA - 2026/09/29 PB - Hackathon Raptors CY - London, United Kingdom DO - 10.68495/rc.2026.C056 UR - https://doi.org/10.68495/rc.2026.C056 AB - Orbital data centres are no longer theoretical. The first nodes are already in low Earth orbit, and inter-satellite laser links are routing data through vacuum, where light travels 47 per cent faster than through fibre. This paper examines how that shift rewrites the rules of networking, AI infrastructure and global compute, and draws on experience building distributed systems at scale to set out what the architects of orbital infrastructure are about to encounter. It connects the physics to the failure modes, and both to lessons learned deploying hyperscale networks, tracing the engineering principles that carry from ground-level distributed systems up to the orbital layer. The underlying argument is that the engineers who will lead this work are already doing it: the location-independent, zero maintenance window problems they have solved on Earth are the same problems now being deployed somewhere nobody can drive to when things go wrong. LA - en ER -