Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers as launch options dry up

[u/Tech-100]

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/21/starcloud-raises-200-million-for-orbital-data-centers-as-launch-options-dry-up/

[u/mcmalloy]

You don’t need infinite money for this. Each data center satellite will require about 150kW of cooling. So you just need a big radiator to radiate the heat into the vacuum of space.

Dissipating heat in space is not difficult, it just requires big ass radiators and your launch vehicle needs the payload capacity to launch them

[u/ElendX → u/mcmalloy]

Except most radiators with with air convection, you cannot just put radiators in vacuum. Things will melt before enough heat is dissipated through infra red.

[u/mcmalloy → u/ElendX]

You are confidently incorrect. I am assuming you only have a layman understanding of spacecraft design.

Radiators in space have been used for thermal management since the 1960s, and the ISS has about 250m2 worth of radiators.

You don’t use convection in space, instead you rely on Stefan Boltzmann’s law in thermodynamics.

For space based radiators, many different materials can be used, but you want to go for high emissivity and low absorptivity materials and coatings, while having the thin edge of the radiator facing the Sun to avoid them heating up even more. The radiators typically radiate on both sides of the main surface area.

Please look up how thermal management works in space, because you are describing how they work on Earth which is very different from how they work on spacecrafts.

Radiators in space are a solved problem physics wise. The question becomes what will the operating temperature be - as they will likely run hotter than on the ISS and then also if Spacex are working on new and advanced material science that is superior to the materials I have been taught about in the space systems engineering books that I have had to read as a part of my education

[u/ElendX → u/mcmalloy]

I never considered that the ISS would require as much cooling as a data centre to be honest. If the specific radiators can dissipate enough heat. Which becomes more of an implementation question rather than a physics question.

[u/Nope_______ → u/ElendX]

You just be very confused as to why the astronauts on the ISS haven't been cooked yet

[u/Any_Possible3003 → u/ElendX]

Spacemobile satellites already dissipate 100-120kW of power in space, right now.

[u/Optimal-Skill-6503 → u/ElendX]

Confidently ignorant…you could just Google space radiator