Muon Space unveils Starship-class satellite platform for orbital data centers

Muon Space, a five-year-old Californian satellite maker, introduced the Condor-Ultra platform on June 3, a Starship-class satellite designed specifically for the emerging orbital data center market. The platform offers 20 kilowatts of baseline power and over 18 square meters of payload area, with plans to scale to 100 kilowatts. It will use SpaceX’s Starlink Mini Lasers for inter-satellite data relay through SpaceX’s broadband constellation. The first launch is scheduled for 2028, with a pathfinder mission flying a fully production-ready platform, unlike traditional technology demonstrators. Condor-Ultra is three times heavier and five times more powerful than Muon’s previous largest satellite, the 500-kilogram XL platform, which is set to launch in 2027 for Hubble Network. Muon’s president, Greg Smirin, emphasized the platform’s scalability, including ‘native Starship stackability’ for deploying hundreds or thousands of satellites once SpaceX’s rocket enters service. This design reduces per-satellite launch costs at scale and supports configurations compatible with current medium-lift vehicles like Falcon 9 and Rocket Lab’s Neutron. Muon is expanding production capacity with a new facility in San Jose, California, set to open later this month, increasing manufacturing footprint by 10 times and enabling up to 500 satellites per year. The company controls 95% of its spacecraft production in-house, including propulsion systems acquired through the 2023 purchase of Starlight Engines. This vertical integration strategy aims to make orbital data center missions more economically viable than competitors building infrastructure from scratch. Condor-Ultra is designed to integrate next-generation computing hardware, including NVIDIA’s Space-1 Vera Rubin Module for AI inferencing. Muon also plans to test Starlink Mini Lasers in orbit for the first time in 2027 during a separate mission. While customers remain undisclosed, Smirin confirmed the 2028 pathfinder is built to meet real mission requirements from engaged clients across data center and communications sectors. Muon’s approach contrasts with companies like SpaceX, Starcloud, and Cowboy Space, which have proposed building orbital data center constellations in-house. Smirin argued that Muon’s vertical integration investments will prove more compelling as market demands grow, reducing the burden of full-stack development for operators.