Firefly to Fly Starcloud SC-1L Processor on Elytra to Test AI in Lunar Orbit

Overview

• Firefly announced on Wednesday that Starcloud’s SC-1L AI processor will fly as a commercial payload on the company’s third Elytra mission to demonstrate high-power AI computing in lunar orbit.
• The SC-1L will ingest imagery and navigation data from Firefly’s Solux vision system, run AI inference and training on orbit, and send processed results to Earth to reduce raw downlink needs.
• The Starcloud demo is slated for Firefly’s third lunar flight, which the company says is targeted to launch no earlier than 2028, and the Elytra vehicle is planned to remain in lunar orbit for up to five years to host customer payloads.
• Investors reacted to the announcement with Firefly shares rising roughly 5–6%, and the deal builds on Starcloud’s prior enterprise GPU tests in low Earth orbit and Firefly’s separate NVIDIA Jetson collaboration for on-orbit imaging processing.
• The program is currently at the contractual and announcement stage and remains forward-looking and subject to technical, schedule, integration, and regulatory risks that could change timelines or outcomes.