SpaceX claims it will put a Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale system into orbit next year
And fly ‘significant scale’ in 2028 – a claim that isn’t entirely bonkers, but needs a solid grain of salt
SpaceX has announced plans to launch a datacenter rack, the Vera Rubin NVL72, into orbit next year, with larger-scale deployments planned for 2028. The announcement came from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on his social media platform X, with references to the collaboration between SpaceX and Nvidia for this project. The NVL72 system is a rack-scale system composed of 72 GPUs, 36 CPUs, ConnectX-9 SuperNICs, and BlueField-4 DPUs housed in 18 compute trays and nine NVLink switch trays.
Each unit and the rack weigh approximately 4,000 lbs (1,800kg). The exact rocket SpaceX will use for these launches has not been disclosed. The MGX racks required to house each NVL72 are around 600mm x 2,293mm x 1,068mm deep, making them suitable for fit within the Falcon 9's fairing. Each rack consumes 120 kW of power and features a novel liquid cooling system.
In terms of cooling, SpaceX plans to use 210 kW solar arrays and liquid radiators to manage heat in the vacuum of space. While SpaceX has demonstrated the capability to launch over 100 Falcon 9 missions annually, the challenges of operating in space may pose significant obstacles to their ambitious plans for 2028.
Written by urgent.news from The Register's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
