Luxembourg's OwlO Cloud Plans European Orbital Cloud Network

At a glance

Luxembourg startup OwlO Cloud unveiled plans to build an orbital cloud network that helps European satellite operators process more data in space. It aims to have at least 10 spacecraft running by 2030.

Key points

1. 1

   Each spacecraft will carry data processing and storage hardware plus optical communications gear, mostly from European suppliers.

2. 2

   The company plans to fund early development with venture capital, then use infrastructure financing to expand the network.

3. 3

   OwlO was picked for Thales Alenia Space's Space Business Catalyst and signed a memorandum of understanding with Edge Aerospace.

4. 4

   While other orbital data center firms aim to replace Earth-based data centers, OwlO focuses on quickly and cheaply processing data that satellites already collect.

Why it matters

As satellites gather more data, they need places to process it, and Europe is moving to build its own infrastructure for this.