Startup · United States

Starcloud

formerly Lumen Orbit

Starcloud has flown one 60 kg satellite carrying an NVIDIA H100 and holds the most verified funding of any company in the field, $443.4M across five rounds. Every step after the demonstrator depends on launch access and on thermal hardware that has not flown: Starcloud-2 has moved from October 2026 to 2027.

Stage: 5 of 7; Own satellite flown
Verified funding: $443.4M; rank 1 of 8 in the tracker total
Next announced step: 2027; slipped once, from October 2026
FCC request: 88,000; satellites, an application, not an approval

Company profile on SpaceNexus Compare in the program database Markdown version

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Done
Failed
Announced target (end of the stated window)
Earlier target that moved
Today

Shared launches: Bandwagon-4 (2025-11-02) with Astro Digital, NVIDIA.

Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown

Starcloud-1, a 60 kg satellite carrying one NVIDIA H100, launched on 2 Nov 2025.[1]

What the stage means: Its own compute satellite flown.

Milestones

11 Mar 2024DoneConfirmed
$2.4M pre-seed as Lumen Orbit; demonstrator promised for May 2025
The demonstrator target was restated in December 2024 and the satellite flew on 2 Nov 2025, about six months later.
Sources: Payload; TechCrunch
11 Dec 2024DoneConfirmed
$11M seed as Lumen Orbit
Seed out of Y Combinator S24; reported $40M valuation.
Sources: TechCrunch; GeekWire
26 Feb 2025DoneConfirmed
$10M seed extension and rebrand to Starcloud
Total seed $21M; renamed from Lumen Orbit.
Sources: DatacenterDynamics; American Bazaar; Cosmic Log
22 Oct 2025DoneConfirmed
Crusoe agrees to run Crusoe Cloud on a Starcloud satellite
At the time the satellite was scheduled for late 2026, with limited GPU capacity offered from early 2027.
Sources: Crusoe; DatacenterDynamics
2 Nov 2025DoneConfirmed
Starcloud-1 launched with an NVIDIA H100
60 kg satellite on an Astro Digital Corvus-Micro+ bus, launched on SpaceX Bandwagon-4 (Falcon 9). Orbit about 495 x 503 km; still in orbit as of 3 Oct 2026.
Sources: Gunter's Space Page; US SEC; CelesTrak
Dec 2025DoneCompany claim
Gemma inference and nanoGPT training on Starcloud-1
Company says it ran Google Gemma and trained a small nanoGPT model on the works of Shakespeare; reported by CNBC on 10 Dec 2025. Not independently verified.
Sources: Starcloud; CNBC
4 Feb 2026DoneConfirmed
FCC application for up to 88,000 satellites
Distributed data center constellation with laser links; accepted for filing 13 Mar 2026.
Sources: SpaceNews; Communications Daily; FCC
30 Mar 2026DoneConfirmed
$170M Series A at $1.1B valuation
Led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures.
Sources: Payload; Via Satellite
26 May 2026DoneCompany claim
Starlink Mini laser terminal contract
More than 50 terminals across at least 25 satellites, up to 25 Gbps links (company release as quoted by Unite.AI).
Source: Unite.AI
21 Aug 2026DoneConfirmed
$250M Series A extension at $2.3B valuation
Led by Manhattan West; NVIDIA and Cisco Investments joined. About 25 employees and a Woodinville, WA factory.
Sources: TechCrunch; Via Satellite; SiliconANGLE
30 Sep 2026DoneConfirmed
Firefly signs Starcloud SC-1L lunar-orbit compute payload
SC-1L rides Firefly Elytra on Blue Ghost Mission 3, NET 2028.
Sources: Firefly Aerospace; GlobeNewswire

Announced next steps

Targets as the organisation stated them. When a date moved, every move is listed with its source; a narrower window is shown as a narrowing.

2027Slipped once
Two Starcloud-2 satellites (8 kW each) on rideshare[1][2][3]
Moved: October 2026 to 2027[1]
early 2027 (set October 2025; at risk, tied to Starcloud-2, now 2027)
Crusoe offers limited GPU capacity from orbit[1][2]
2028 to 2029 (CEO expects Starship access then)
Starcloud-3: 200 kW, about 3 t, deployed from Starship[1]
NET 2028
SC-1L lunar-orbit compute demo on Firefly Elytra (Blue Ghost Mission 3)[1]

What to watch · SpaceNexus note, not a prediction

Whether the two Starcloud-2 satellites launch in 2027, and whether Crusoe opens in-orbit GPU capacity after they do.

Promise record

Dated promises with two sources for the promise and the outcome. No grades or ratings.

Promise record for Starcloud
Step	Promised	Outcome	Moved by
First demonstrator (Starcloud-1)	May 2025, said 11 Mar 2024[1][2]	Launched 2 Nov 2025[1]	5 to 6 months
Starcloud-2 launch	October 2026, said 30 Mar 2026[1][2]	Now 2027 (stated 21 Aug 2026)[1]	3 to 15 months

Approach and key figures

Orbit: LEO. Starcloud-1 at about 495 to 503 km, 45.4 deg (CelesTrak); Starcloud-2 sun-synchronous; FCC constellation filing in 600 to 850 km shells; SC-1L payload in lunar orbit
Architecture: Solar-powered, radiatively cooled GPU satellites, scaling from a 60 kg demonstrator to 8 kW and then 200 kW spacecraft, linked by optical lasers
Power: Solar. Starcloud-2: 8 kW per satellite. Starcloud-3: 200 kW (planned)
Cooling: Radiative. Starcloud-2 carries what the company calls the largest commercial deployable radiator sent to space
Compute: Starcloud-1: one NVIDIA H100. Starcloud-2 (planned): NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, an AWS Outposts server blade and bitcoin-mining ASICs
Customers and partners: Crusoe (Crusoe Cloud in orbit); Capella Space SAR inference (company claim); AWS, Google Cloud and NVIDIA named as partners

Key figures with confidence labels and sources
Figure	Value	Confidence and source
Starcloud-1 mass	60 kg	Confirmed[1]
GPUs on Starcloud-1	1 NVIDIA H100	Confirmed[1]
Starcloud-2 power per satellite (planned)	8 kW	Company claim[1]
Starcloud-3 power (planned)	200 kW	Company claim[1]
FCC filing, maximum satellites	88,000 satellites	Reported[1]
Valuation after Series A extension	$2.3B	Reported[1]

Funding

$443.4M of these rounds count toward the tracker’s verified total of equity in dedicated orbital-compute companies; each row says whether it counts.

Rounds come from company announcements, regulatory filings and press reports. Amounts, valuations and investors are as reported and may be incomplete or later revised. Not investment advice, and not an offer or solicitation for any security. Full disclaimer

Equity rounds
Date	Round	Amount
11 Mar 2024	Pre-seed (as Lumen Orbit)Counted in the tracker total.[1][2]	$2.4M
11 Dec 2024	Seed (as Lumen Orbit). Led by NFX (lead); Y Combinator (accelerator) and othersCounted in the tracker total.[1][2]	$11M
26 Feb 2025	Seed extension (SAFE)Counted in the tracker total.[1][2][3]	$10M
30 Mar 2026	Series A ($1.1B valuation). Led by Benchmark, EQT VenturesCounted in the tracker total.[1][2]	$170M
21 Aug 2026	Series A extension ($2.3B post-money). Led by Manhattan WestNVIDIA's participation is reported; the size of its share comes from one anonymous source (TechCrunch, citing a person familiar with the deal)..Counted in the tracker total.[1][2][3]	$250M

Filings

A filing is an application or a disclosure, not an approval.

FCC, 4 Feb 2026: Application for up to 88,000 orbital data center satellites (SAT-LOA-20260202-00073); accepted for filing 13 Mar 2026; the AAS urged denial or a stay[1][2][3]

All cautions

"First LLM trained in orbit" is a company claim, widely repeated, not independently verified.
Capella SAR inference results have not been published independently.
Rounds sum to $443.4M; the company cites $450M.
Constellation shell altitudes differ by source: 650 to 800 km (SpaceNews) and 600 to 850 km (Communications Daily).

People

Philip Johnston (co-founder, CEO) · Ezra Feilden (co-founder, CTO) · Adi Oltean (co-founder)

How it compares

Starcloud beside programs at the same stage or in the same region
Program	Stage	Verified funding	Next step
Starcloud (this page)	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	$443.4M	2027: Two Starcloud-2 satellites (8 kW each) on rideshare
Aethero	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	$8.4M	Oct 2026: Titan: Jetson Thor compute cluster on EnduroSat FRAME-15
Altair	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: The other nine satellites of the first ten
Google Suncatcher	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Two-satellite mission testing inter-satellite laser links
KP Labs	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	Mid-2026: Leopard DPU on ESA OPS-SAT VOLT
Orbital Chenguang	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2025 to 2027: First computing constellation and key technologies
Planet	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Pair of Suncatcher satellites with Google

All 59 entries on the orbital data centers tracker

Evidence reviewed 5 Oct 2026, fact-checked against primary sources. Nothing on this page is sponsored, and no company can pay to change, reorder or preview it. Spotted an error? Report a correction. How stages and labels work.

Starcloud

formerly Lumen Orbit

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Done
Failed
Announced target (end of the stated window)
Earlier target that moved
Today

Shared launches: Bandwagon-4 (2025-11-02) with Astro Digital, NVIDIA.

Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown

Starcloud-1, a 60 kg satellite carrying one NVIDIA H100, launched on 2 Nov 2025.[1]

What the stage means: Its own compute satellite flown.

Milestones

11 Mar 2024DoneConfirmed
$2.4M pre-seed as Lumen Orbit; demonstrator promised for May 2025
The demonstrator target was restated in December 2024 and the satellite flew on 2 Nov 2025, about six months later.
Sources: Payload; TechCrunch
11 Dec 2024DoneConfirmed
$11M seed as Lumen Orbit
Seed out of Y Combinator S24; reported $40M valuation.
Sources: TechCrunch; GeekWire
26 Feb 2025DoneConfirmed
$10M seed extension and rebrand to Starcloud
Total seed $21M; renamed from Lumen Orbit.
Sources: DatacenterDynamics; American Bazaar; Cosmic Log
22 Oct 2025DoneConfirmed
Crusoe agrees to run Crusoe Cloud on a Starcloud satellite
At the time the satellite was scheduled for late 2026, with limited GPU capacity offered from early 2027.
Sources: Crusoe; DatacenterDynamics
2 Nov 2025DoneConfirmed
Starcloud-1 launched with an NVIDIA H100
60 kg satellite on an Astro Digital Corvus-Micro+ bus, launched on SpaceX Bandwagon-4 (Falcon 9). Orbit about 495 x 503 km; still in orbit as of 3 Oct 2026.
Sources: Gunter's Space Page; US SEC; CelesTrak
Dec 2025DoneCompany claim
Gemma inference and nanoGPT training on Starcloud-1
Company says it ran Google Gemma and trained a small nanoGPT model on the works of Shakespeare; reported by CNBC on 10 Dec 2025. Not independently verified.
Sources: Starcloud; CNBC
4 Feb 2026DoneConfirmed
FCC application for up to 88,000 satellites
Distributed data center constellation with laser links; accepted for filing 13 Mar 2026.
Sources: SpaceNews; Communications Daily; FCC
30 Mar 2026DoneConfirmed
$170M Series A at $1.1B valuation
Led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures.
Sources: Payload; Via Satellite
26 May 2026DoneCompany claim
Starlink Mini laser terminal contract
More than 50 terminals across at least 25 satellites, up to 25 Gbps links (company release as quoted by Unite.AI).
Source: Unite.AI
21 Aug 2026DoneConfirmed
$250M Series A extension at $2.3B valuation
Led by Manhattan West; NVIDIA and Cisco Investments joined. About 25 employees and a Woodinville, WA factory.
Sources: TechCrunch; Via Satellite; SiliconANGLE
30 Sep 2026DoneConfirmed
Firefly signs Starcloud SC-1L lunar-orbit compute payload
SC-1L rides Firefly Elytra on Blue Ghost Mission 3, NET 2028.
Sources: Firefly Aerospace; GlobeNewswire

Announced next steps

Targets as the organisation stated them. When a date moved, every move is listed with its source; a narrower window is shown as a narrowing.

2027Slipped once
Two Starcloud-2 satellites (8 kW each) on rideshare[1][2][3]
Moved: October 2026 to 2027[1]
early 2027 (set October 2025; at risk, tied to Starcloud-2, now 2027)
Crusoe offers limited GPU capacity from orbit[1][2]
2028 to 2029 (CEO expects Starship access then)
Starcloud-3: 200 kW, about 3 t, deployed from Starship[1]
NET 2028
SC-1L lunar-orbit compute demo on Firefly Elytra (Blue Ghost Mission 3)[1]

What to watch · SpaceNexus note, not a prediction

Whether the two Starcloud-2 satellites launch in 2027, and whether Crusoe opens in-orbit GPU capacity after they do.

Promise record

Dated promises with two sources for the promise and the outcome. No grades or ratings.

Promise record for Starcloud
Step	Promised	Outcome	Moved by
First demonstrator (Starcloud-1)	May 2025, said 11 Mar 2024[1][2]	Launched 2 Nov 2025[1]	5 to 6 months
Starcloud-2 launch	October 2026, said 30 Mar 2026[1][2]	Now 2027 (stated 21 Aug 2026)[1]	3 to 15 months

Approach and key figures

Orbit: LEO. Starcloud-1 at about 495 to 503 km, 45.4 deg (CelesTrak); Starcloud-2 sun-synchronous; FCC constellation filing in 600 to 850 km shells; SC-1L payload in lunar orbit
Architecture: Solar-powered, radiatively cooled GPU satellites, scaling from a 60 kg demonstrator to 8 kW and then 200 kW spacecraft, linked by optical lasers
Power: Solar. Starcloud-2: 8 kW per satellite. Starcloud-3: 200 kW (planned)
Cooling: Radiative. Starcloud-2 carries what the company calls the largest commercial deployable radiator sent to space
Compute: Starcloud-1: one NVIDIA H100. Starcloud-2 (planned): NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, an AWS Outposts server blade and bitcoin-mining ASICs
Customers and partners: Crusoe (Crusoe Cloud in orbit); Capella Space SAR inference (company claim); AWS, Google Cloud and NVIDIA named as partners

Key figures with confidence labels and sources
Figure	Value	Confidence and source
Starcloud-1 mass	60 kg	Confirmed[1]
GPUs on Starcloud-1	1 NVIDIA H100	Confirmed[1]
Starcloud-2 power per satellite (planned)	8 kW	Company claim[1]
Starcloud-3 power (planned)	200 kW	Company claim[1]
FCC filing, maximum satellites	88,000 satellites	Reported[1]
Valuation after Series A extension	$2.3B	Reported[1]

Funding

$443.4M of these rounds count toward the tracker’s verified total of equity in dedicated orbital-compute companies; each row says whether it counts.

Equity rounds
Date	Round	Amount
11 Mar 2024	Pre-seed (as Lumen Orbit)Counted in the tracker total.[1][2]	$2.4M
11 Dec 2024	Seed (as Lumen Orbit). Led by NFX (lead); Y Combinator (accelerator) and othersCounted in the tracker total.[1][2]	$11M
26 Feb 2025	Seed extension (SAFE)Counted in the tracker total.[1][2][3]	$10M
30 Mar 2026	Series A ($1.1B valuation). Led by Benchmark, EQT VenturesCounted in the tracker total.[1][2]	$170M
21 Aug 2026	Series A extension ($2.3B post-money). Led by Manhattan WestNVIDIA's participation is reported; the size of its share comes from one anonymous source (TechCrunch, citing a person familiar with the deal)..Counted in the tracker total.[1][2][3]	$250M

All cautions

"First LLM trained in orbit" is a company claim, widely repeated, not independently verified.
Capella SAR inference results have not been published independently.
Rounds sum to $443.4M; the company cites $450M.
Constellation shell altitudes differ by source: 650 to 800 km (SpaceNews) and 600 to 850 km (Communications Daily).

How it compares

Starcloud beside programs at the same stage or in the same region
Program	Stage	Verified funding	Next step
Starcloud (this page)	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	$443.4M	2027: Two Starcloud-2 satellites (8 kW each) on rideshare
Aethero	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	$8.4M	Oct 2026: Titan: Jetson Thor compute cluster on EnduroSat FRAME-15
Altair	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: The other nine satellites of the first ten
Google Suncatcher	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Two-satellite mission testing inter-satellite laser links
KP Labs	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	Mid-2026: Leopard DPU on ESA OPS-SAT VOLT
Orbital Chenguang	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2025 to 2027: First computing constellation and key technologies
Planet	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Pair of Suncatcher satellites with Google

All 59 entries on the orbital data centers tracker

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Milestones

Announced next steps

Promise record

Approach and key figures

Funding

Filings

All cautions

People

How it compares

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Milestones

Announced next steps

Promise record

Approach and key figures

Funding

Filings

All cautions

People

How it compares

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