{"id":259961,"date":"2026-05-31T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/spacex-vow-to-loft-1-million-ai-satellites-could-spark-doomsday-dive\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T00:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:20:25","slug":"spacex-vow-to-loft-1-million-ai-satellites-could-spark-doomsday-dive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/spacex-vow-to-loft-1-million-ai-satellites-could-spark-doomsday-dive\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Vow To Loft 1 Million AI Satellites Could Spark Doomsday Dive"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX Vow To Loft 1 Million AI Satellites Could Spark Doomsday Dive<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/kevinholdenplatt\/2026\/05\/31\/spacex-vow-to-loft-1-million-ai-satellites-could-spark-doomsday-dive\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-31 00:05:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.forbes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Elon Musk has vowed to begin launching one million AI data center satellites into orbit in 2028, via the still experimental Starship rocket, in a high-risk plan that could trigger a financial catastrophe, and send SpaceX into a high-speed nosedive. (Photo by SERGIO FLORES\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n

AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s plan to begin launching one million AI data center satellites into orbit in 2028 could trigger a financial catastrophe, sending SpaceX into a high-speed nosedive, say leading North American space scholars.<\/p>\n

In what could be viewed as a precursor project, SpaceX has already lofted 10,000 Starlink broadband-beaming satellites, with each spacecraft costing US$2 million to build and launch, says Robert Zubrin, one of the world\u2019s top rocket designers. <\/p>\n

Using the same SpaceX spacecraft assembly and launch systems to lift one million AI satellites into low Earth orbit could cost roughly $2 trillion, or the entire projected valuation of the world-leading spacecraft outfit following its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of shares.<\/p>\n

If SpaceX\u2019s founder actually moves forward with his sci-fi-like masterplan to construct this mega-constellation for spacefaring AI agents, that could spark the lightning-speed halt of his long-running winning streak in business, Zubrin told me in an interview.<\/p>\n

Dr. Zubrin, who designed an early prototype of NASA\u2019s Space Launch System Moon rocket, which just sent four Allied astronauts on a circumlunar space trek, says lofting satellites to host next-generation artificial intelligence models like OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT and Google\u2019s Gemini would be astronomically more expensive than terrestrial data centers.<\/p>\n

Aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin designed an early prototype of the Space Launch System super-rocket, which just sent four Allied astronauts on a trek around the Moon. (Photo by Jim WATSON \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n

AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

During the countdown to the SpaceX IPO and listing, its commander-in-chief posted a…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX Vow To Loft 1 Million AI Satellites Could Spark Doomsday Dive https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/kevinholdenplatt\/2026\/05\/31\/spacex-vow-to-loft-1-million-ai-satellites-could-spark-doomsday-dive\/ Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imageio.forbes.com\/specials-images\/imageserve\/6a1ba365dc58bd98aed2cd6a\/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&height=900&width=1600&fit=bounds","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-259961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259963,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259961\/revisions\/259963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}