Firefly Aerospace has signed Starcloud as a commercial customer under a payload agreement that will demonstrate AI computing capabilities in lunar orbit, the companies announced on September 30.
Starcloud's compute payload, designated SC-1L, will fly aboard Firefly's Elytra orbital vehicle as part of Firefly's third lunar mission, targeted for no earlier than 2028. The payload will ingest data from Firefly's onboard Solux vision system, perform AI computing in orbit, and transmit the processed data back to Earth.
The demonstration follows Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which is set to land on the Moon's Gruithuisen Domes as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Once that lander mission is complete, the Elytra orbiter will remain in lunar orbit for five years, serving as a transfer vehicle and communications relay while hosting customer payloads including Starcloud's demonstration.
"By pairing Starcloud's AI computing payload with our Elytra vehicle and Solux vision system, we're demonstrating how data can be captured, processed, and delivered from lunar orbit," said Ray Allensworth, Firefly's VP of Spacecraft.
Starcloud Cofounder and CTO Ezra Feilden framed the deal as a step toward a longer-term ambition: "Space is the future of data centers, and the Moon is the next frontier for that vision."