Firefly Aerospace (Nasdaq: FLY) announced a commercial payload agreement with Starcloud to demonstrate AI computing capabilities in lunar orbit, according to a company press release.

Starcloud's computing payload, designated SC-1L, will fly aboard Firefly's Elytra orbital vehicle, where it will ingest data from Firefly's Solux vision system, perform AI computing on orbit, and transmit processed data back to Earth. The mission is targeted to launch no earlier than 2028 as part of Firefly's third lunar mission.

For that mission, the Elytra vehicle will first serve as a transfer vehicle and communications relay for Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which is planned to land on the Moon's Gruithuisen Domes as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. After the lander mission concludes, Elytra will remain in lunar orbit for five years to support customer payload operations, including Starcloud's demonstration.

Starcloud previously conducted an AI computing demonstration in low Earth orbit. The lunar mission would extend those operations farther from Earth.

"Space is the future of data centers, and the Moon is the next frontier for that vision," said Ezra Feilden, Cofounder and CTO at Starcloud. "We successfully validated our ability to run and train AI models on enterprise grade GPUs in low Earth orbit, and now we're taking this proven technology to lunar orbit."

This will be the second Elytra vehicle Firefly deploys to lunar orbit, following a first planned launch no earlier than 2027 as part of Blue Ghost Mission 2. Each Elytra vehicle is designed to remain in lunar orbit for up to five years.

Firefly also previously announced a collaboration with Nvidia to process lunar imaging data on orbit through its Ocula lunar imaging service, using the Nvidia Jetson module and AI software developed through its SciTec subsidiary.