Satlyt secures $8m to develop AI computing software for satellites

Satlyt, a start-up founded by former Google and SpaceX product manager Rama Afullo, has raised $8 million to develop software that runs AI on satellites. It aims to let spacecraft from different operators share computing work in orbit, creating an open, cloud-like service without building its own satellites.

The company has flown its software on two demonstrations and says an onboard Google DeepMind Gemma model reduced a transmission about software errors by more than 60%, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year. Its latest mission, launching aboard a SpaceX rocket, will test workloads for NASA, space-surveillance start-up Stellerian and satellite builder TakeMe2Space. Satlyt plans to try linking computing across two satellites next year; powerful GPUs remain scarce in orbit, so near-term uses focus on processing data and handling spacecraft operations locally.