Cowboy Space has unveiled Big Iron, a launch vehicle featuring an upper stage designed to function as a megawatt-class orbital data center. The company plans to offer this capacity to external customers through the Big Iron Express program, targeting a first flight in 2028.
The upper stage will operate in a dawn-dusk orbit, with each unit measuring 132 by 73 meters and housing five racks of NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs. Cowboy Space aims to integrate these stages into its Stampede constellation, which could eventually include up to 20,000 satellites, subject to FCC approval.
The company recently tested the combustion chamber for its Clydesdale engine at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. A team of approximately 30 people completed this development in 90 days, placing the company nearly a year ahead of its internal schedule.
Cowboy Space previously launched its Reason-1 laser power beaming demonstration satellite on October 1 via SpaceX’s Transporter-18. The company plans to launch Reason-2 in 2027, which will process data for commercial and government clients, including NOAA.
