Starcloud launched a spacecraft last year carrying an Nvidia H100 GPU into low Earth orbit, and now company executives say a follow-up mission will deploy ASIC Bitcoin miners on a second spacecraft later this year. The move makes the orbital demonstration a clear test of whether crypto can work in space at scale.
Bitcoin in Space: Operational vs. Startup Costs
Reports say the company believes running miners above the atmosphere could reduce energy and cooling costs. Solar panels provide stable power in orbit, and the vacuum allows the satellite to remove heat without massive air conditioning systems.
Here are the Starcloud savings points. But getting vehicles into orbit and keeping them there comes at a price. Starting costs, protective shielding and large radiators add mass and cost. Replacing equipment will be more difficult than replacing racks in Texas.
The company started operating orbital data centers for AI workloads, not just cryptocurrency. Reports suggest that Starcloud’s long-term plan is a set of computing platforms that could take on business customers.
The cat is out of the bag: @Starcloud_-2 will be the first person to mine đť—•Bitcoin in space.
This would be a huge field in itself. Currently, Bitcoin mining continuously consumes about 20 GW of electricity. It doesn’t make sense on earth to do this, and in the end, all this… pic.twitter.com/tmfr8rxGOL
— Philip Johnston (@PhilipJohnston) March 7, 2026
Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston announced Saturday that the company aims to become the first person to mine Bitcoin in space after discussing (video below) its space mining plans at Thursday’s HyperChange.
Currently, testing is narrow: install miners in orbit, see if they work, measure runtime and energy math. Officials said the test offered hard numbers, not slogans.
Equipment in space is a different business
The NVIDIA-backed launch and high-profile flight of the GPU has attracted attention, but civil engineers and space systems experts point to several technical limitations. Electronics are exposed to constant radiation. Memory and silicon degrade faster without heavy protection.
Heat must be rejected through radiators, which increases distance and mass. Reports state that ASICs optimized for Earth cooling simply cannot be shipped to space and are expected to last for years.
BTCUSD trading at $67,601 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView
The data shows that underground mining benefits from cheap local energy, proximity to utility groups and economies of scale that are already well understood. Placing the same miners in orbit removes easy access for repairs.
If a board fails, replacing it may require another missile launch. These risk factors into any calculation of lifetime costs and investment returns.
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