Current Affairs
India's First Orbital Data Centre: What It Means to Store Data in Space
What if the servers storing your photos and videos floated 500 km above Earth? India is preparing to launch its first orbital data centre satellite, a move that could change how countries store and protect digital information.
500 kmApproximate altitude at which orbital data centre satellites typically operate
The facts
- 1An orbital data centre is a satellite that stores and processes data in space instead of in land-based buildings, using solar power instead of electricity from the grid.
- 2India's space imaging startup Pixxel has partnered with AI language company Sarvam to build and operate the country's first orbital data centre satellite.
- 3Land-based data centres consume enormous amounts of electricity and water for cooling — a single large centre can use as much power as a small city; space-based ones avoid this problem by radiating heat directly into space.
- 4Global technology firms are interested in orbital data centres because space offers near-zero cooling costs, direct satellite connectivity, and the ability to process sensitive data outside any single country's legal jurisdiction.
- 5A key tradeoff is cost and risk: launching hardware into orbit is far more expensive than building on the ground, and a damaged satellite cannot be easily repaired.
Why it matters
As India generates more digital data — from UPI payments to Aadhaar records — questions of where and how safely that data is stored become critical. Orbital data centres offer energy savings and new sovereignty options, but they also raise fresh questions about who controls data floating above national borders.
Sources
- The Hindu
- Pixxel (Indian space imaging startup)
- Sarvam AI
