By Kevin Holden Platt
Publication Date: 2026-05-31 04:05:00
Elon Musk has vowed to launch a million AI data center satellites into orbit in 2028 using the still-experimental Starship rocket, a risky plan that could trigger financial disaster and send SpaceX into a rapid nosedive. (Photo by SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk’s plan to launch a million AI data center satellites into orbit in 2028 could trigger financial catastrophe and send SpaceX into a rapid nosedive, top North American space scientists say.
In what could be described as a precursor project, SpaceX has already sent 10,000 Starlink broadband satellites into space, costing $2 million to build and launch each spacecraft, says Robert Zubrin, one of the world’s top rocket designers.
Using SpaceX’s same spacecraft assembly and launch systems to launch a million AI satellites into low Earth orbit could cost about $2 trillion, or the entire estimated value of the world’s leading spacecraft…
