In an interview with technology journalist Alex Heath on November 10th, AWS CEO Matt Garman stated that orbital data centers are highly unlikely to be economically viable or practical within the next 10 to 20 years. While space can utilize solar energy, launch frequency and cost remain primary obstacles. Currently, it's impossible to launch a rocket daily, whereas AWS deploys a GPU to its data centers on average every 14 seconds. Garman also pointed out that a single GPU rack could weigh up to one ton, and the solar power equipment required for large-scale deployment is enormous. Furthermore, while space is cold, the lack of air makes heat dissipation extremely difficult; cosmic radiation increases server protection costs, and repair and replacement after equipment failure also present challenges. He emphasized that these problems are not technically insurmountable, but will require a considerable amount of time. In contrast, he believes desert data centers are more realistically feasible, as they have ample solar energy, space to deploy cooling facilities, and liquid cooling technology can reduce some cooling energy consumption.
