太空数据中心曾只存在于科幻小说和雄心勃勃的融资路演中，如今正开始走向现实。
Space data centers, once confined to sci-fi novels and ambitious pitch decks, are beginning to get real.
本月早些时候，一枚SpaceX火箭搭载了一颗谷歌的实验卫星，该卫星将向Gemini发出简单请求，同时研究人员测试其四个TPU在太空中的表现。同一次发射还搭载了初创公司Cowboy Space的Reason-1卫星，该公司正在试验用激光将太阳能传回地球。
A SpaceX rocket earlier this month carried an experimental Google satellite that will make simple requests to Gemini while researchers test how its four TPUs hold up in space. The same launch carried the Reason-1 satellite from startup Cowboy Space, which is experimenting with beaming solar power back to Earth with a laser.
由Robinhood联合创始人巴朱·巴特领导、并获得Index Ventures的扬·哈默等人投资的Cowboy Space，本周公布了一项更大的计划：其自研的专用数据中心火箭，可将五机架的英伟达Vera Rubin GPU送入轨道。这家初创公司还计划用这枚火箭以“Big Iron Express”之名与SpaceX竞争，向其他方出售发射服务。巴特表示，公司的“北极星”目标是让太空计算在成本上与地面计算具有竞争力，为此公司正在进行极致的垂直整合。另一个资金雄厚的参与者是Starcloud，该公司获得Benchmark投资，目前估值23亿美元。
Cowboy Space, led by Robinhood cofounder Baiju Bhatt and backed by Jan Hammer at Index Ventures, among others, this week unveiled an even bigger swing: its own purpose-built data center rocket that can carry five racks of NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs into orbit. The startup also plans to use this rocket to compete with SpaceX in selling launch services to others under the name “Big Iron Express.”Bhatt told that his company’s “north star” is to make space compute cost-competitive with terrestrial compute, and that it’s vertically integrating to the extreme to achieve that end. Another well-funded player is Starcloud, backed by Benchmark and currently valued at $2.3 billion.