Rama Afullo says he saw orbital data centers coming.
The Kenyan American engineer worked in Google’s cloud division before a short period at SpaceX’s Starlink network in 2024. Those experiences convinced him that computers in space held untapped potential.
“When I was at SpaceX, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no. When I was at Google, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no,” he tells TechCrunch.
He left SpaceX to co-found Satlyt. The company has offices in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi. Its goal is to build software for satellites that allows many satellites to share large computing jobs. Satlyt raised an $8 million seed round, Afullo exclusively told TechCrunch.
The timing fits. SpaceX has committed to orbital data centers. Satlyt’s software launches Thursday on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype for Google’s space data center effort, Project Suncatcher.
Unlike SpaceX or Google, Satlyt does not plan to build its own spacecraft. The team builds software to run AI models on satellites. Afullo compares this to VMWare and Snowflake, platforms that let users run complex software without worrying about underlying infrastructure.
“The folks like SpaceX who are doing orbital data centers—if they are the iPhone, we’ll build Android as a horizontally integrated, open ecosystem,” he said. Satlyt wants to offer software that works across many companies’ satellites.
Satlyt has flown its software on two demonstration missions. The initial focus is finding operational efficiencies for spacecraft. These typically depend on flight controllers on the ground to solve problems that arise. Sending data back to Earth, known as downlink, is expensive and often slow. Using AI to make decisions on the spacecraft means real savings. This applies when resolving anomalies or processing sensor readings on the spacecraft instead of on the ground.
Earlier this year, Satlyt deployed Google DeepMind’s Gemma AI model onboard a spacecraft operated by Momentus. The model cut the size of a transmission about onboard software errors by more than 60%. This efficiency can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year.
This week’s launch puts Satlyt’s software to work onboard a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space. This Indian startup builds computing hardware for satellites. The mission involves three customers. NASA pays the company to test protocols for cloud computing in space. Stellerian, a start-up focused on space surveillance, wants to test image processing workloads. TakeMe2Space itself wants to show the satellite can host other companies’ software.
Right now, few high-powered GPUs are in orbit. The most likely opportunity lies in the kinds of workloads Satlyt is working on. The next project is to show it can create a shared computing system—a cloud—spanning two different satellites. The company expects to attempt this next year. If successful, it will allow the company to build a true compute cloud in orbit as a third-party provider to spacecraft builders.
“The way to think about it is that we turn your satellite into a revenue-generating managed service,” Afullo said.
Satlyt’s seed round was led by Non Sibi Ventures. This Houston-based firm has partner Bernard Harris. Harris served as a NASA astronaut for more than 20 years. He helped ground the firm’s conviction in a novel, space-based business.
One reason the firm invested is that Satlyt does not depend on the highest-octane vision of space data centers. This faces uncertain economics and a launch bottleneck. “We don’t need data centers in space for Rama to be wildly successful, right?” Non Sibi partner Kent Lucas told TechCrunch. “It can just be driven by the number of satellites going up.”
Afullo hopes to be live on 20% of satellites by the end of the decade. He expects virtually every spacecraft builder to put GPUs and similar advanced processors in their satellites then.
“If you’re putting up a satellite without putting up a GPU on it, at the very least, you’re doing yourself a disservice, right?” he says.
Satlyt is among dozens of other startups vetted by TechCrunch and appearing at Disrupt. This is part of the broader Battlefield competition happening October 13-15 in downtown San Francisco.
What it means
Current satellite operations rely heavily on ground teams to manage issues. This creates delays and costs. Satlyt aims to change this by allowing satellites to process data and fix problems themselves. The goal is to make space assets more independent and profitable without needing massive on-orbit data centers.
