The way Rama Afullo tells it, he saw orbital data centers coming. The Kenyan American engineer previously worked in Google’s cloud computing business before a brief stint at SpaceX’s Starlink communications network in 2024. His experiences convinced him that there was untapped potential for computers in space.
When I was at Google, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no,” he tells TechCrunch. So he left SpaceX and co-founded Satlyt, a new company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, to build software for satellites that he hopes will let many satellites share the work of large computing jobs in space.
The company has raised an $8 million seed round, Afullo exclusively told TechCrunch. The timing looks good for him. SpaceX has since gone all-in on orbital data centers, and Satlyt’s software is set to launch Thursday on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype for Google’s space data center effort, Project Suncatcher.
Unlike SpaceX, Google, or startups like Starcloud and Cowboy Space Company, Satlyt isn’t planning to build its own spacecraft. Afullo’s team is building the software to operate AI models on satellites, comparing his approach to VMWare and Snowflake—companies whose platforms let users run complex software without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. In other words, Satlyt wants to offer software that works across many companies’ satellites.
Satlyt has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. The initial focus is finding operational efficiencies for spacecraft, which typically depend on flight controllers on the ground to solve any problems that arise. Sending data back to Earth, known as downlink, is expensive and often slow, so using AI to make decisions on the spacecraft can mean real savings, either when resolving anomalies or by 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%, the kind of efficiency that Afullo says can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year. This week’s launch will put Satlyt’s software to work onboard a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup that builds computing hardware for satellites.
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