Blue Origin, the space conglomerate founded by Amazon chair Jeff Bezos, has asked the U.S. government for permission to launch a network of over 50,000 satellites that will act as a data center in orbit. The company's 'Project Sunrise' aims to reduce pressure on U.K. communities and natural resources by shifting energy and water-intensive compute away from terrestrial data centers. The move to space is attractive as solar energy is free to harvest and there are fewer regulations restricting corporate activities. However, the economics of space data centers remain challenging, with technology for cooling processors and communicating between spacecraft with powerful lasers needed to be developed and manufactured as cheaply as possible. Additionally, challenges include the cost of launching these computers into orbit, and concerns about potential orbital collisions.