Cowboy Space Unveils Big Iron: A Heavy-Lift Orbital Data Center
Cowboy Space reveals Big Iron, a massive methane-powered rocket whose upper stage doubles as a megawatt-class orbital data center for AI processing.
Terminal Status: Hardware Reveal
Cowboy Space has officially declassified specifications for Big Iron, a heavy-lift launch vehicle designed to solve the orbital power bottleneck. Unlike traditional disposable platforms, Big Iron’s upper stage is engineered to remain in LEO as a megawatt-class data center. According to Payload, the architecture aims to bypass the high costs of launching separate cooling and power infrastructure by integrating them directly into the airframe.
Vehicle Specifications
- Dimensions: 86-meter height, stainless-steel construction, road-transportable.
- Propulsion: First stage utilizes nine "Clydesdale" LOX/methane engines, each generating 300,000 lbs of thrust.
- Capacity: 15,000+ kg to Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
- Hardware: Deployed upper stages measure 132m x 73m, housing five racks of NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs.
Multi-Role Efficiency
To maximize mass efficiency, the vehicle employs a "dual-use" design philosophy. The rocket's external skin functions as a thermal radiator in vacuum, while liquid ammonia serves as both propellant and data center coolant. Furthermore, nitrogen used for stage pressurization is repurposed to deploy the station's solar arrays.
Timeline and Deployment
Cowboy Space recently completed combustion chamber testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, reportedly tracking a year ahead of schedule. The company’s preliminary demonstrator, Reason-1, launched on October 1 via SpaceX, with laser power beaming tests expected imminently. The Reason-2 GPU-dedicated mission is slated for 2027, followed by the maiden flight of Big Iron in 2028. The long-term objective is "Stampede," a constellation comprising up to 20,000 orbital nodes pending regulatory clearance.