An ambitious satellite maker will launch one of the most powerful spacecraft ever built in the coming weeks to demonstrate the technology needed to build data centers in orbit.
K2, founded by brothers and former SpaceX engineers Karan and Neel Kunjur in 2022, has packed the Gravitas satellite into a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket expected to launch later this month. Gravitas has a mass of two metric tons, with a wingspan of 40 meters when its solar panels are deployed.
The big satellite thing is big power: Gravitas is capable of generating 20 kW of electricity for use by payloads like powerful sensors, transceivers and computers. For comparison, the even larger and more expensive ViaSat-3 spacecraft can generate more than 25 kW of power, while the Starlink V2 satellites have been estimated to generate 28 kW. But most spacecraft only generate a handful of kilowatts.
“The future is a higher power,” explains CEO Karan Kunjur. K2 raised $425 million to make this vision a reality and was valued at $3 billion by its investors in December 2025. This launch will be the company’s first step into real space business—and what Kunjur calls “the beginning of our iterative journey.”
The Gravitas mission will fly 12 undisclosed payload modules from multiple customers, including the Department of Defense, as well as a 20 kW electric thruster that the company expects will be the most powerful ever flown into space.
Kunjur said the demonstration will be evaluated on several levels of success — first, can K2 deploy the spacecraft and generate power? Second, can it start running its payloads and test its powerful thruster? And if that goes well, can he use the thruster to lift the spacecraft thousands of kilometers into a higher orbit?
Kunjur knows that launching a new spacecraft isn’t easy — 85 percent of its components are designed and built in-house — and that markets are quick to judge anomalies. What’s more important, he says, will be maximizing data collection to feed into the next satellite design. K2 plans to launch eleven satellites over the next two years in a mix of demonstration and commercial missions. By 2028, Kunjur expects the company to be producing satellites for customers to build commercial high-powered space vehicle networks.
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As satellites continue to play a larger role in the economy, power helps close new business cases. Kunjur expects the first impact to be on communications networks—more power means more throughput and a signal that’s less prone to jamming. As in-orbit data processing becomes more important, high-power satellites will be needed to operate advanced processors.
But the big challenge for data centers—and large satellites of all kinds—is the cost of launching them into space. K2’s founding pitch harnessed the power of Starship, the massive rocket currently being developed by SpaceX, which may be able to offer big reductions in the cost of getting into orbit. However, it is not yet clear when the vehicle will be operational or start providing low-cost services.
But the growing demand for more power in orbit gives K2 a different framework for its unique spacecraft. Massive communications networks like Starlink and Amazon LEO, hyperscalers exploring the possibilities of orbital computing, and Pentagon plans for a $185 billion missile defense system with thousands of new satellites all point to satellites with more electrical power.
K2 argues that its spacecraft still makes sense in a world where it can cost about $7.2 million to launch (with customer prices on a Falcon 9) instead of $600,000 (a world where Starship lowers launch costs for external customers). Kunjur argues that Gravitas’ $15 million price tag still makes it cheaper than high-powered satellites built by traditional contractors, while being more powerful than similarly priced smaller spacecraft.
And once the bigger rockets start flying regularly, Kunjur says his team will be ready with even bigger options.
“The thinking is, let’s build all the components that we’re going to go forward, we need to be first when Starship and New Glenn are available for everyone else,” he told TechCrunch. K2 has plans ready for a 100 kW satellite, all bolted to the floor of its factory and spanning the entire building.
