Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

A top US official has suggested that the United States should consider housing its data centers in orbit rather than building more of them on the ground.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: Data centers have become a political liability for lawmakers seeking reelection across the country. Communities blame them for rising electricity bills, water use, noise, and emissions, and politicians in both parties are scrambling to get away from them. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who used to tout the investment, put out an order last week that makes developers pay for the power they use and get sign-off from the towns hosting them. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made similar moves. Some lawmakers want outright moratoriums, though EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin came out against that Sunday, arguing the country cannot hand the AI race to China. Others say Chinese influence operations are fueling pushback on data centers to slow US AI growth. According to the Department of Energy, data centers ate about 4.5% of US electricity in 2023, a figure projected to hit somewhere between 7 and 12% by 2028.

What’s going on: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman suggested that the United States move the whole industry off the planet. In an interview with NewsNation, Isaacman said, “Let’s take our data centers, put them in Earth orbit, take advantage of that free fusion reactor that’s out there for us and use that to ensure we do win the… space race for sure, but the AI race, too.” The free fusion reactor he mentioned is the sun.

He has been making this argument for weeks. On the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast in early August, he pitched it as a way to deal with what the public is angry about.

“Elon and others in the industry are like, ‘Let’s take the data centers that no one likes in your backyard, it seems like there’s a lot of consensus on that, and put them into space where they won’t bother anyone,'” he said, noting that the panels needed to run them would be the size of several football fields. He did not offer details on cost, feasibility, or timeline.

Despite all of this, the private sector is already moving. Starcloud, a US-based company founded in 2024, is trying to put 88,000 satellites up there running 20 gigawatts worth of computing. In addition to this, SpaceX and Nvidia are targeting the last quarter of 2027 for their first AI computing satellite launches, with a much bigger rollout the year after, and SpaceX’s new $100 billion Louisiana spaceport at Pecan Island is explicitly meant to support orbital data center missions.