voyager technologies CEO Dylan Taylor said two years would be a “tough” period for space data centers, and cooling remained an issue for technology development.
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 may seem counterintuitive, but it’s difficult to actually cool things in space because there’s no medium to transfer hot things to cold things,” he says. “Essentially, all heat dissipation has to be done by radiation, which means you have to point the radiator away from the sun to do that.”
tesla CEO Elon Musk has long touted the future of data centers in space, highlighting their construction this week as a key reason for merging his 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 StarLab project to replace the International Space Station, which is scheduled to retire in 2030.
Taylor said the company is on track to meet the project’s 2029 launch goal. Palantir, airbus and mitsubishi. Voyager already 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, but the 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.
