# Project Sunrise

**Type:** Orbital data center constellation  
**Operator:** Blue Origin  
**Status:** FCC application filed (March 19, 2026)  
**Scale:** Up to 51,600 satellites  

## Overview

Project Sunrise is Blue Origin's orbital data center constellation, filed with the FCC on March 19, 2026. The constellation would provide in-space computing services using a three-layer architecture: New Glenn launch capability, TeraWave communications relay network, and Project Sunrise compute layer.

## Technical Architecture

**Constellation parameters:**
- 51,600 satellites in sun-synchronous orbits
- Altitude range: 500-1,800km
- Orbital planes separated by 5-10km in altitude
- 300-1,000 satellites per orbital plane
- Primary data: laser intersatellite links (optical mesh)
- Secondary: Ka-band for telemetry, tracking, and command

**Communications layer (TeraWave):**
- 5,408 satellites for enterprise-grade connectivity
- Up to 6 Tbps throughput
- TeraWave serves as comms relay; Project Sunrise is compute layer deployed on top

## Strategic Positioning

Blue Origin frames Project Sunrise as bypassing terrestrial data center constraints (land scarcity, power demands, cooling) by capturing solar power in sun-synchronous orbit for compute operations. The constellation would serve global AI inference demand without ground infrastructure buildout.

The filing requests FCC waiver from milestone rules requiring 50% deployment within 6 years and 100% within 9 years, signaling execution timeline uncertainty.

## Market Context

At 51,600 satellites, Project Sunrise exceeds the current Starlink constellation by an order of magnitude. If deployed at any significant fraction of filed capacity, Blue Origin would become the dominant orbital compute infrastructure provider globally.

No public anchor customer has been announced, despite AWS being the logical internal demand source. This contrasts with SpaceX's Starcloud, which has xAI as confirmed captive demand.

## Timeline

- **2026-01** — TeraWave communications network announced (5,408 satellites, 6 Tbps)
- **2026-03-19** — FCC application filed for Project Sunrise (51,600 satellites)

## Related

- [[blue-origin]]
- [[terawave]]
- [[new-glenn]]
- [[starcloud]]