Satlyt’s software spreads tasks across orbit in a four-computer test
Satlyt, a startup building software to turn existing satellites into data processing networks, completed a successful test earlier this month after 13 months of work. The test, run with the University of Houston on a NASA-funded research project, showed how the company’s software can spread tasks among computers in orbit based on communication and available compute, TechCrunch reported.
Rama Afullo, Satlyt’s founder, said his first reaction was, “Let’s GOOOO.” He said the goal is software that connects to multiple satellites to share computing assignments. Users “will only need to define permissions, priorities, and operating limits,” while the software makes decisions within those limits, Afullo told TechCrunch. Its software is already on three satellites in orbit, and this test was the first step toward that vision.
While the test used NASA-funded research, the agency has not yet selected Satlyt for any particular mission or chosen it to deploy its technology. Afullo said NASA missions face the same constraints Satlyt hopes to address: “limited computing resources, intermittent communication, and the need to get useful information back to people.”
In the test, the company created a simulated network with four computers, four users and eight services. The software assessed how to assign and run tasks on those computers, accounting for compute and communication availability. Only one physical computer on a spacecraft in orbit ran the software; the other three were simulations. The results were eventually sent back to Earth. The test proved Satlyt’s software can generate plans on hardware in orbit, but more testing will be done to see how computers transfer information among each other in practice when multiple physical computers are used.
“The finding is a trade-off,” Afullo said. One approach worked best, though it required more computing power than the others. Satlyt, which was in the top five of this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield, calls the test a win. “It’s a building block toward satellites sharing computing work,” he said.
NASA already has a technology network designed to move data through space even when communication links face delays. It started using the tech earlier this year and has already tested it on aircraft.
Afullo, who previously worked at Google and SpaceX, founded Satlyt in 2024 to turn spacecraft into virtual data centers. Its software helps operators run AI and other applications onboard, processing data closer to where it is collected and reducing dependence on downlinks and ground-based analysis done mainly by humans. For example, if a spacecraft sees a wildfire on Earth, such software can help it transmit relevant information much faster.
“The goal is to get useful answers to people sooner and make better use of limited communication windows,” Afullo said. “This experiment tested one planning component of that broader capability.”
Satlyt said it still needs to test its software under various workloads, hardware and connectivity conditions. The company also found an issue in how its software was time-referencing delays, Afullo said: it was stamping them as arrival time rather than elapsed delay, a different metric. That does not mean the experiment failed. “The software development, onboard execution, and return of outputs succeeded,” he said.
But Afullo said much work remains. “We also need usable communication links, permission from participating operators, secure transfers, resource scheduling, and recovery when a connection of computers becomes unavailable.” The company hopes to launch in environments beyond low Earth orbit soon. “Our next technical steps are broader validation and integration, followed by demonstrations of computing work shared across separate spacecraft,” he said. “Longer term, we want developers to build applications for space without having to rebuild the infrastructure for every mission. That’s what virtual AI data centers in space mean to us.”
