voyager technologies CEO Dylan Taylor said two years is a “tough” time for space data centers, and cooling remains an issue for the technology being developed.
SpaceX has heavy-lift rockets to carry parts into space, but Taylor told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan that the lack of a cooling solution to transfer heat remains a major barrier.
“It’s counterintuitive, but it’s difficult to actually cool things down because there’s no medium in the universe to transfer hot things to cold things,” he explained. “Essentially, all heat dissipation has to be done by radiation, which means you have to place the radiator away from the sun.”
tesla CEO Elon Musk has long touted the future of data centers in space, and this week highlighted ramping up as a key reason to combine his company’s rocket company SpaceX and AI startup xAI in a deal worth $1.25 trillion.
Voyager, which went public in June, is widely known for its Star Lab project to replace the International Space Station, which is scheduled to be retired in 2030.
Taylor said the company is on track to meet the project’s 2029 launch goal. Palantir, airbus and mitsubishialready has its own cloud computing device on the ISS.
President Donald Trump’s increased defense spending and plans to revamp the nation’s space program have increased interest in investing in space technology over the past year. The long-awaited SpaceX initial public offering, scheduled for later this year, is also increasing investor interest.
Last year, the IPO market reopened after years of drought, and a flurry of space technology companies went public.
But the path hasn’t always been rosy for the field.
Voyager stock has lost more than half its value since its debut, and rocket maker Firefly Aerospace has lost nearly two-thirds of its value since going public in August.
Taylor said Voyager is poised to take the lead in space data centers with the help of laser communications tools.
“We are big believers in the maturation of technology and the ability to generate data in space and process data in space,” he said.
