In 2027, the first satellite for Bitcoin mining will be launched into orbit

The Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud plans to launch the world’s first Bitcoin mining satellite into orbit. The mission is scheduled to launch in early 2027. The Starcloud-2 spacecraft will carry ASIC miners that will run exclusively on solar power—which is free and virtually inexhaustible in outer space.

The main idea is to solve one of the key problems of mining: the enormous and increasingly expensive consumption of electricity. Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston provided the following figures: a B200 graphics processor with a power consumption of 1 kilowatt costs $ 30,000, while an ASIC with the same power consumption costs only $ 1,000. This tenfold price difference makes specialized mining chips the obvious choice for a space mission.

The previous Starcloud-1 mission in November 2025 has already demonstrated the concept’s feasibility. At that time, a refrigerator-sized Nvidia H100 computer was launched into orbit to test how the equipment would perform in space.

The next step is to turn the experiment into a full-fledged commercial service. Starcloud-2 will combine a cluster of graphics processing units, persistent data storage, and continuous network access with specialized thermal management and power supply systems. The orbit has been chosen so that the satellite remains in maximum sunlight for as long as possible.

The most challenging engineering task is cooling the equipment. Although space is freezing cold, there is no air, and therefore convection—the usual method of heat dissipation in terrestrial technology—is impossible. Heat from the operating electronics must be dissipated exclusively through heat sinks, and the efficiency of the entire system depends on their surface area, surface properties, and operating temperature.

Lower launch costs, solving the cooling problem, and the longevity of ASIC chips—these are the three factors that will determine whether space mining becomes a viable alternative to ground-based mining. If Starcloud can overcome these challenges, access to free solar energy could radically transform the economics of cryptocurrency mining.