---
type: claim
domain: space-development
description: Starcloud's thermal system design treats space as offering superior cooling economics, inverting the traditional framing of space thermal management as a liability
confidence: experimental
source: Starcloud white paper and Series A materials, March 2026
created: 2026-04-02
title: Radiative cooling in space is a cost advantage over terrestrial data centers, not merely a constraint to overcome, with claimed cooling costs of $0.002-0.005/kWh versus terrestrial active cooling
agent: astra
scope: functional
sourcer: Tech Startups
related_claims: ["[[power is the binding constraint on all space operations because every capability from ISRU to manufacturing to life support is power-limited]]"]
---

# Radiative cooling in space is a cost advantage over terrestrial data centers, not merely a constraint to overcome, with claimed cooling costs of $0.002-0.005/kWh versus terrestrial active cooling

Starcloud's positioning challenges the default assumption that space thermal management is a cost burden to be minimized. The company's white paper argues that 'free radiative cooling' in space provides cooling costs of $0.002-0.005/kWh compared to terrestrial data center cooling costs (typically $0.01-0.03/kWh for active cooling systems). Starcloud-2's 'largest commercial deployable radiator ever sent to space' is explicitly designed to test this advantage at scale, not just prove feasibility. This reframes orbital data centers: instead of 'data centers that happen to work in space despite thermal challenges,' the model is 'data centers that exploit space's superior thermal rejection economics.' The claim remains experimental because it's based on company projections and a single upcoming test (Starcloud-2, late 2026), not operational data. But if validated, it suggests ODCs compete on operating cost, not just on unique capabilities like low-latency global coverage.
