Orbital Selects Reflex Aerospace as Satellite Partner for Space Data Center

Orbital has selected Reflex Aerospace as its satellite platform partner and entered into a development agreement for a planned orbital data center constellation. Reflex Aerospace, a German satellite manufacturer based in Berlin and Munich, will lead the design of the satellite bus platform for Orbital-1 and subsequent constellations. The agreement marks Reflex Aerospace as its first customer in the United States and establishes a strategic collaboration for next-generation computing infrastructure in orbit.

Under the agreement, Reflex Aerospace will provide the satellite bus platform on an exclusive basis to Orbital for orbital compute applications. Engineering teams from Orbital in Los Angeles and Reflex Aerospace in Berlin and Munich are collaborating as an integrated program team. Reflex Aerospace serves as the system integrator for the space system. Euwyn Poon, CEO of Orbital, stated that Reflex provides a proven satellite bus platform that handles complex avionics, precision control of large structures, and long-term reliability.

Orbital recently revealed plans for a constellation of up to 100,000 satellites designed to provide large-scale computing capacity in orbit. The initiative aims to enable energy-efficient artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications while decreasing reliance on terrestrial infrastructure. Orbital-1 targets peak power levels approaching 250 kilowatts and addresses challenges such as continuous passive heat rejection and large solar array power distribution. Orbital is headquartered in Los Angeles and backed by a16z speedrun and other technology investors.