A China-built space computing cloud has recently started offering regular in-orbit experimental services, according to its developer.
Led by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), the orbital computing power facility automates end-to-end operations across satellite platforms, space servers, ground stations and data centers, giving worldwide users a full life-cycle service from task submission, deployment, execution, monitoring to results delivery.
Space computing refers to an emerging computing paradigm that deploys data processing, storage, intelligent analysis and decision-making capabilities on orbital platforms, such as satellites and space stations.
The Chinese computing cloud platform operates on the Tiansuan Constellation, launched by BUPT in 2021. As the world's first space computing constellation, it has deployed 16 low-Earth-orbit satellites and seven ground stations, supported more than 60 institutions in orbital tests and drawn researchers from more than 50 countries and regions to its ecosystem.
It offers several key technological capabilities, such as building reusable platform-based services, supporting long-term reliable operation of onboard software, and laying a foundation for real-time in-orbit processing of space data and autonomous satellite decision-making.
Since entering service, the platform has supported multiple tasks, including in-orbit big-data computing and 6G communications. More than 100 users have accessed the energy-efficient service, the university said on Sunday.
Compared with ground-based data centers, the advantages of space computing cloud lie in real-time responsiveness and global coverage.
Traditional data centers are constrained by high energy consumption, limited land resources, high cooling costs, and limited coverage, which can hardly meet future demands for ultra-large-scale, green, and globally covered computing power, while space-based computing offers a zero-carbon, sustainable, and widely accessible alternative, said Yu Guobin, deputy director of the commercial space department of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, at 2026 Space Computing Industry Conference held in Beijing in April.
The official noted that the space-based computing technology can offer real-time and intelligent services to emergency response, marine observation, aviation and shipping, and polar expeditions.
According to the BUPT, the platform's value lies in helping the space information industry move from hardware delivery to persistent service delivery, cultivating new industrial growth areas in satellite internet, 6G, commercial space and emergency communications. Some of these fields are among the key emerging industries that China aims to foster over the next five years.
