Open registration for the event has closed. Please contact events@spacenews.com.

Orbital data centers have quickly moved from hypothetical to seemingly inevitable, and opportunities and challenges are coming into focus fast.

As players raise millions to drive the race to establish off-planet computing, join SpaceNews on April 30 in Washington, D.C., for an afternoon of conversations with industry and government leaders on building, powering and managing data infrastructure in space.

We’ll explore into the near- and long-term potential fueling the buzz and investment in on-orbit computing, assess how solar and nuclear power could solve a key hurdle and weigh how the proliferation of AI informs the calculus of what computing stays on Earth and what begins to be handled in space.

A networking reception will follow our program. The event will not be live-streamed. A post-event report featuring takeaways will be published in May and select conversations may be featured on upcoming episodes of our Space Minds podcast.

Agenda

3:00 p.m. ET – Doors open

3:30–5:30 p.m. ET – Program

3:30 p.m. – Opening remarks

  • Mike Gruss, Chief Strategy and Content Officer, SpaceNews
  • Dave Cavossa, President, Commercial Space Federation

3:35 p.m. – Fireside chat

  • Jay Schwarz, Chief, Space Bureau, Federal Communications Commission
  • Brad Grantz, Staff Director, U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee
  • In conversation with Dave Cavossa, President, Commercial Space Federation

3:55 p.m. – Powering compute from space: solar ambitions and nuclear realities

  • Marc Berte, Founder and CEO, Overview Energy
  • In conversation with Jeff Foust, Senior Staff Writer, SpaceNews

4:10 p.m. – Fireside chat

  • Andrew Rush, Co-founder and CEO, Star Catcher
  • Brian Lewis, Pelican and Suncatcher Mission Director, Planet
  • In conversation with Mike Gruss, Chief Strategy and Content Officer, SpaceNews

4:30 p.m. – Processing in orbit: how much compute stays in space?

  • Kelley Litzner, Director of Commercial Programs, The Aerospace Corporation
  • Paul Tilghman, Chief Technology Officer, Voyager Technologies
  • Michael Pierce, Principal, Technology Strategy Partners
  • In conversation with Mike Gruss, Chief Strategy and Content Officer, SpaceNews

5:00 p.m. – What orbital data centers will be – and won’t be – by 2035

  • Delian Asparouhov, Co-founder and President, Varda Space Industries, and Partner, Founders Fund
  • In conversation with Jeff Foust, Senior Staff Writer, SpaceNews

5:15 p.m. – The 88,000 steps to Starcloud’s orbital data center network

  • Philip Johnston, Co-founder and CEO, Starcloud
  • In conversation with Jeff Foust, Senior Staff Writer, SpaceNews

5:30–7 p.m. ET – Networking reception

In-person event
Opportunities for On-Orbit Computing
Part of SpaceNews’ Orbital Data Centers Series
Thursday, April 30 | 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET
Washington, D.C.

Open registration for the event has closed. Please contact events@spacenews.com.

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