Space startup Cowboy Space Corporation (previously Aetherflux) has filed with the FCC for a new 20,000-satellite NGSO constellation named in the application as the 'Stampede Data Center System'.

“Cowboy Space seeks to address the critical energy bottleneck throttling American innovation in AI and data center deployments by pioneering cutting-edge technologies for space-based solar power, optical transmission via infrared lasers, and in-orbit data center applications. Enter Cowboy Space’s Stampede,” the application, written by chief operating officer Joseph Yaffe, reads.

The application specifies a system with an operational lifetime of five years operating in dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbits contained in orbital shells between 700 (434 mile) and 1000km (621 mile) altitudes, communicating through optical laser links, which will begin launching in 2028.

The design of the satellites remains unfinished, as do the company’s rockets, which themselves must be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.

Aetherflux was founded in 2024 by Cowboy Space CEO and Robinhood co-founder Baiji Bhatt to create a space-based solar power (SBSP) system in low-Earth (LEO) orbit to beam power to Earth, an operation for which the company never got around to applying to the FCC, and presumably now won’t.

The filing touts space as a more resilient environment than the Earth’s surface, given the latter is exposed to “weather events and physical vulnerabilities of the terrestrial electric grid”, as well as a less costly and faster environment in orbit to build infrastructure, given the expense involved with the “massive buildings, extensive water resources [and] localized permitting delays” of the terrestrial region.

The application also mentions the company’s engineering team’s record with the likes of SpaceX, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, Anduril, Amazon Leo, and the U.S. Navy. The company has been collaborating with Nvidia to deploy the tech giant’s Space-1 Vera Rubin Modules, specialized for establishing AI infrastructure in LEO.

Last week, the company declared its $275 million Series B, closed with a $2 billion valuation, announcing its aspiration to pursue “vertically integrated orbital data centers and rockets”.

“Like steam power in the 19th century and the internet in the 20th century, AI is a revolutionary technology that can materially improve the way that we work and live,” Yaffe explains in the FCC application. “… By some estimates, the insatiable demand for electricity to support AI data centers will drive a 160 percent increase in global data center power demand by 2030 … Simply put: The traditional pace of interconnection with utilities and the terrestrial power grid is not ready to meet the infrastructure demands of AI. … In short: By putting the silicon next to the sunlight, Stampede can skip the terrestrial power grid entirely and bypass the costs and delays associated with building data centers on Earth.”