随著众多新创企业计划在太空建造资料中心，对电力的庞大需求应运而生。总部位于佛罗里达州的 Star Catcher 开发出一种太空能量节点技术，利用聚光透镜聚焦太阳能并转换为高强度雷射，直接射向其他卫星的太阳能电池板进行无线充电。该公司即将搭乘 SpaceX 火箭发射名为 Protostar 的原型卫星，测试在轨道上向另一颗独立运行的立方卫星发射雷射传输能量，若成功将成为人类首次在太空中实现两个非系留物体间的雷射能量传输。
在太空中传输能量的概念由来已久，但以往昂贵的发射成本阻碍了其商业化；如今随著发射成本下降，这项技术终于展现经济可行性。Star Catcher 已获得 6500 万美元融资、美国太空军 3000 万美元合约，以及 10 份长期购电协议，显示出市场对其轨道电力传输技术的强烈信心。借由减少卫星自备笨重电池的负担，营运商能携带更多有效载荷（如 GPU），同时搭乘同班火箭发射的还有 Google 的太空资料中心实验项目，进一步象征著太空新兴产业的蓬勃发展。
尽管 Star Catcher 过去已在地面试验中创纪录地传输超过 1 千瓦电力，并验证了卫星追踪技术，但目前技术仍处于起步的「爬行」阶段。要在轨道上完全实现商业化雷射电力传输，未来仍需克服精准追踪系统、散热管理，以及极端真空环境下设备长期耐用性等诸多挑战。尽管微波传输能承载更多能量但需要庞大接收器，雷射技术则具备命中小型目标的灵活性，该公司期望透过完善太空电力基础设施，为未来的太空重工业开辟全新道路。
As numerous startups prepare to build data centers in space, the demand for abundant power has surged. Florida-based startup Star Catcher aims to address this challenge by deploying orbital power nodes that concentrate sunlight using specialized lenses and beam it to target satellites' solar panels via lasers. The company is set to launch its prototype satellite, Protostar, aboard a SpaceX rocket to attempt wireless power transmission to an untethered cubesat, marking what could be the first-ever laser power transmission between two unattached space objects.
While space solar power was conceived decades ago, historically high launch costs long hindered its feasibility; however, plummeting launch costs have now made orbital energy infrastructure commercially viable. Demonstrating strong market interest, Star Catcher has raised $65 million in funding, secured a $30 million award from the US Space Force, and signed 10 power purchase agreements. By reducing the reliance on massive onboard batteries, satellites and space data centers can dedicate more payload weight to useful hardware like GPUs, mirroring parallel developments such as Google's upcoming space-based data center experiment on the same flight.
Although Star Catcher previously demonstrated the technology by beaming over 1 kilowatt of power to off-the-shelf solar panels on Earth and validating satellite tracking systems, company leadership acknowledges they are still in the early 'crawl' phase of orbital power provisioning. Critical engineering hurdles—such as maintaining extreme tracking precision, thermal dissipation, and long-term hardware survival in the harsh vacuum of space—must be resolved before fully commercializing the service. Compared to microwave power beaming which requires massive receivers, laser transmission allows targeting smaller solar arrays, paving the way for scalable infrastructure in the growing space economy.