Orbital, a new space data center company, has raised $5 million in seed funding from investors including a16z, Basis Set, and Human Element. Founder and CEO Euwyn Poon, who previously founded e-scooter company Spin, aims to deploy 10,000 satellites providing a distributed gigawatt of computing power.
The company is betting on SpaceX's Starship rocket to make the business case economically feasible. For now, Orbital is working towards a demo flight to test its radiation shielding and thermal management tech.
Poon's experience scaling up Spin, which deployed 250,000 scooters across 100 cities, has given investors confidence in his ability to manage the tricky task of building an aerospace company.
