Overview of The Space Technology That Could Change History Forever
Shawn Ryan interviews entrepreneur Beju Bhatt about his new space company, Cowboy Space, and its ambitious plan to move data-center infrastructure off Earth and into orbit. The conversation centers on a new concept called “Big Iron”: a reusable rocket/satellite system designed to generate power in space, host AI/data-center compute, and potentially scale to a constellation that matches major U.S. grid capacity. The pitch is that space-based compute could reduce pressure on Earth’s power grid, water supply, and land use while creating a new commercial space economy.
Core Concept: Data Centers in Space
Why move data centers off Earth?
Bhatt argues that terrestrial data centers are becoming increasingly problematic because they:
- Consume huge amounts of electricity
- Use large volumes of water for cooling
- Require major real estate and grid infrastructure
- Add strain to local communities and utility systems
His thesis is that placing data centers in orbit could avoid many of those downsides while still supporting the growth of AI and cloud compute.
Why space makes sense technically
He points to several advantages of orbital infrastructure:
- Near-continuous sunlight in certain polar/sun-synchronous orbits
- High solar energy availability per panel in space
- No land use and no local grid impact
- Radiative cooling in vacuum, which allows heat to be dissipated into space rather than into water or air
The Big Iron System
What Big Iron is
Big Iron is Cowboy Space’s flagship architecture: a rocket whose upper stage becomes the satellite/data center in orbit.
Instead of launching a traditional rocket that just delivers satellites as payload, the company is designing a vehicle where:
- The rocket itself is part of the orbital infrastructure
- The fairing/outer shell folds out into a radiator
- The propellant system is repurposed for cooling
- The vehicle carries compute directly, rather than serving only as transport
Key hardware features
Bhatt describes Big Iron as a highly integrated system with:
- Solar panels for power generation
- Laser links for high-bandwidth data transfer between satellites and down to Earth
- Space for roughly five racks of NVIDIA NVL72-class compute per spacecraft
- A design intended to make every component do double duty
“Everything does two jobs”
A major theme is efficiency through multifunctional design:
- Radiator = rocket structure
- Ammonia propellant = coolant
- Cold gas thrusters = deployment/orientation tools
- Reusable engine stages = lower marginal cost
The goal is to reduce wasted mass and spend “thrust” only on parts that directly contribute to revenue-generating compute.
Scale and Power Goals
The planned constellation
Bhatt says Cowboy Space is aiming for:
- 20,000 satellites
- About 1 megawatt of peak power per satellite
- Roughly 20 gigawatts total
He frames that as a power system on the order of the Tennessee grid, and says it would be enough to match or exceed the energy consumed by U.S. data centers only a few years ago.
Why the scale matters
The company’s argument is that if orbital compute is going to be cost-competitive, it has to be built at very large scale from the start.
Rocket and Propulsion Plans
The rocket
Cowboy Space’s rocket architecture is described as:
- About 86 meters tall
- 4.7 meters in diameter
- Designed to be road-transportable
- Capable of putting around 15 metric tons into orbit
The engine
The engine, called Clydesdale, is:
- A gas-generator cycle engine
- Powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane
- Designed for speed of development and reliability
- Producing about 300,000 pounds of thrust per engine
He says the engine is intended to be practical and fast to build, not necessarily the absolute highest-performance option.
Launch and Deployment Strategy
Reusability
Cowboy Space plans for a highly reusable system:
- The booster stage is reused
- Engines nearing end-of-life may be moved to the upper stage
- The upper stage is deorbited after use
- The company wants literally every major part of the rocket to serve more than once
Launch site model
Bhatt describes a future launch complex, called a “trailhead,” designed for fast, repeated launches:
- Multiple launch mounts operating in parallel
- Rockets launched minutes apart when conditions allow
- Launches aimed at the same orbital corridor each time
- Reuse of boosters landing in similar locations
The vision is to make launch infrastructure feel more like an airport network than a one-off government test range.
Timeline and Milestones
Near-term technical goals
The company says it is targeting:
- A full engine hot fire in the middle of next year
- Additional booster testing before then
- A first flight by the end of 2028
Current progress
Bhatt notes the company has already:
- Built and tested a first satellite
- Put that satellite into space
- Begun orbital testing and communications
- Conducted early engine tests at NASA Stennis
The Business Thesis
Cost competitiveness is the whole game
A repeated point in the interview is that the idea only works if orbital compute is:
- Cheaper
- Or at least cost-parity with terrestrial data centers
Bhatt says the company’s design choices are driven by economics first:
- Reducing mass
- Reusing components
- Combining functions
- Lowering launch and orbital operations costs
Commercial space, not government space
He frames Cowboy Space as part of a broader push toward:
- Commercialized space infrastructure
- Less dependence on government programs
- More opportunities for private enterprise in orbit
- A future where people can make a living building and operating space systems
Team and Company Culture
The team
Bhatt highlights a group of specialists across:
- Rocket propulsion
- Finance
- Law
- Lasers and optics
- Data centers
- Photovoltaics
He emphasizes that the company is intentionally assembling people willing to do something others consider impossible.
The culture
The tone throughout is energetic, optimistic, and highly ambitious. Bhatt repeatedly frames the work as:
- Difficult but possible
- Fast-moving
- Built by motivated people who are willing to “just build the thing”
Surprise Announcement: Big Iron Express
At the end, Bhatt introduces Big Iron Express, a related service that will:
- Fly third-party payloads to space
- Offer access to orbit for outside customers
- Support the broader commercial-space thesis
He positions it as both a business opportunity and a way to widen access to orbit beyond a single company or government program.
Main Takeaways
- Cowboy Space’s goal is to build space-based data centers powered by solar energy.
- The company’s core product, Big Iron, combines the roles of rocket, satellite, power system, cooling system, and compute platform.
- The project is designed to solve real concerns about power-grid strain, water use, and land use from AI/data-center growth.
- The company is pursuing an aggressive timeline, with first flight targeted for 2028.
- Bhatt sees this as part of a larger shift toward commercial, economically viable space infrastructure.
Notable Themes
- Space as infrastructure, not just exploration
- Efficiency through multifunctional engineering
- AI compute as a driver of next-generation space industry
- Commercial abundance in orbit
- American-led private space development