Astronomy Prints 🌌: Editor’s Choice: The unicorn designing rockets with built in data centers

05/13/2026

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By Dan Robitzski

There’s another new space unicorn in town now that Cowboy Space closed its latest fundraising round at a $2 billion valuation.

The California-based startup, which announced its $275 million Series B on May 11, has yet to deploy any satellites but plans to launch technology demos later this year. The ultimate goal is to develop, build, launch and operate spacecraft where the upper stage serves as a dedicated orbital data center for AI capabilities in space.

To learn more about the company, I caught up with Jason Rainbow, senior staff writer and business intelligence manager at SpaceNews, who reported on Cowboy’s rapid ascension to unicorn status.

Dan: Cowboy Space just closed a fundraising round at a $2 billion valuation before deploying a satellite. What is it that makes this unicorn unique?

Jason: They’re not the only ones chasing the orbital data center opportunity, or even the first unicorn to do so. What sets them apart is their plan for rockets with upper stages that would double as data centers, along with potential synergies from their original focus on power-beaming satellites.

The company aims to move from an initial data center technology demonstration next year to a fully integrated launch and compute platform. What hurdles will they have to face?

They’re trying to pioneer several capabilities that would be game-changing even on their own. The launch side is particularly brutal and littered with failed rocket startups. Still, SpaceX has shown how advantageous it can be to control launch for your own constellation.

Much of the argument for orbital data centers stems from surpassing the limits of what can be done on Earth. Is there room in the market for a spacecraft with the data center built in, like Cowboy describes?

There’s certainly more room in space than on the ground. In the U.S., opposition to terrestrial data center expansion is becoming more visible across the political spectrum, driven by concerns over power demand, water consumption, land use and pushback from nearby communities.

On the flip side, there have been many recent deals showing how eager AI giants are to snap up compute capacity wherever available.

Did anything else stand out to you while reporting this story?

Space unicorns are not as rare as they once were, and the time between a startup’s founding and achieving a billion-dollar-plus valuation seems to be compressing.

The sheer scale of investment Cowboy has attracted so early in development is striking. It says a lot about how large investors believe the orbital data center opportunity could become, even with all the technical and execution risks ahead.

$1.2 trillion

The anticipated cost over 20 years for the Golden Dome program, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

SPECTRUM SALE

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it will allow EchoStar to sell the roughly 155 megahertz of spectrum that the geostationary satellite operator sold off to SpaceX and AT&T in a handful of deals from last year.

However, the regulatory blessing comes with a controversial condition that EchoStar set up a $2.4 billion escrow account to manage claims from any partners in the 5G network its Dish subsidiary abandoned following the spectrum sales.

EchoStar has questioned the escrow condition, telling SpaceNews that “The FCC has continuously applauded EchoStar’s spectrum sales to AT&T and SpaceX as pro-competitive transactions that serve the public interest, and we appreciate that the FCC approved them today. However, these approvals come with an unprecedented involuntary escrow condition. We are analyzing this requirement and evaluating next steps.”

EchoStar said it expects to receive roughly $22 billion in total from the deal, including up to $11 billion in SpaceX stock and around $2 billion in interim financing to cover payments tied to debt through at least Nov. 30, 2027.

Trending This Week

SpaceX announced that it is planning a launch of the first Starship version 3 vehicle as soon as May 19 from its Starbase facility in South Texas. Liftoff is planned for 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

Northrop Grumman is adapting technologies developed for the James Webb Space Telescope into a navigation system aimed at mid-size satellites.

Varda has signed an agreement with United Therapeutics to study development of novel formulations of drugs in microgravity, starting with treatments for rare pulmonary disease, on Varda’s spacecraft.

Star Catcher Industries, a company developing power-beaming technology for satellites, has raised $65 million in a Series A to validate the technology in space.

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