Cowboy Space has leased a 291,035-square-foot industrial facility in Kent, Washington, to manufacture rockets and spacecraft for its proposed Stampede orbital AI data center constellation, giving the California-based startup a large production base near Seattle\u2019s established aerospace workforce. Newmark, which arranged the transaction for landlord CenterPoint Properties, said the agreement is the largest industrial lease completed in the Puget Sound region so far in 2026.<\/p>\n
The building at 7650 South 228th Street previously operated as a Costco distribution and delivery center. Cowboy Space plans to convert the logistics property into a specialized aerospace manufacturing facility supporting space hardware and launch vehicle development.<\/p>\n
Newmark said the operation is expected to create approximately 300 jobs. Cowboy Space was advertising 46 Kent-based positions when the lease was announced, indicating that recruitment for the new engineering and production hub is already underway.<\/p>\n
The scale of the property suggests that Cowboy Space is preparing for more than prototype development. A 291,000-square-foot manufacturing footprint could accommodate component production, vehicle assembly, integration, testing and storage as the company develops both a heavy-lift rocket and the orbital computing platforms that would remain attached to its upper stages.<\/p>\n
Converting a warehouse into an aerospace factory will nevertheless require substantial work. Rocket and spacecraft production generally demands controlled assembly areas, specialized lifting and handling systems, hazardous-material infrastructure, quality-assurance laboratories and processes for tracking flight hardware. The building\u2019s former logistics role provides substantial floor area and transport access, but not necessarily the environmental controls and test equipment required for flight production.<\/p>\n
Cowboy Space, formerly known as Aetherflux, is developing a vertically integrated architecture combining launch vehicles, solar power generation, artificial-intelligence computing and optical communications. The company plans to begin launching its own rockets into low Earth orbit as early as 2028.<\/p>\n
Rather than deploy a conventional satellite and dispose of the rocket\u2019s upper stage, Cowboy Space intends to turn the stage itself into an operational data center. The company has described each vehicle as a roughly one-megawatt computing platform that would remain in orbit after launch, reducing duplicated structures and allowing the rocket, power system and computing payload to be designed as one vehicle.<\/p>\n
Its proposed Stampede Data Center System would ultimately include as many as 20,000 non-geostationary satellites, according to a Federal Communications Commission application. The spacecraft would operate in dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbital shells between approximately 700 and 1,000 kilometers, where their solar arrays could receive long periods of illumination. Optical links would connect platforms in orbit and transmit data to ground infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The architecture is intended to move energy-intensive AI processing away from terrestrial data centers constrained by grid connections, land availability, permitting and water consumption. Space-based computing, however, replaces those constraints with demanding launch, radiation, networking and thermal-control requirements.<\/p>\n
Waste heat is a particularly important engineering challenge. Spacecraft cannot cool computing hardware through conventional air circulation or evaporative cooling; nearly all heat must ultimately be rejected through radiators. High-performance processors operating at megawatt-class power levels would therefore require large thermal-control systems whose mass and area directly affect launch vehicle sizing and spacecraft design.<\/p>\n
The planned constellation also remains subject to regulatory review. Cowboy Space would need FCC authorization for its communications system and constellation deployment, while its launch vehicle and launch operations would require approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. A network involving thousands of large spacecraft would additionally face scrutiny over collision risk, orbital-debris mitigation and post-mission disposal.<\/p>\n
Kent, about 20 miles south of Seattle, already hosts one of the Pacific Northwest\u2019s largest concentrations of space engineering and manufacturing talent. Boeing\u2019s Kent Space Center has operated for more than five decades and produced hardware including NASA\u2019s Apollo lunar rovers. Blue Origin and reusable-launch-vehicle developer Stoke Space also maintain major operations in the area.<\/p>\n
Cowboy Space\u2019s head of launch and propulsion, Warren Lamont, previously worked at IonQ and Blue Origin and is among the executives leading the company\u2019s Seattle-area engineering organization. The location gives the startup access to engineers and suppliers with experience in propulsion, launch vehicles, satellites and high-rate aerospace manufacturing.<\/p>\n
Cowboy Space raised $275 million in a Series B financing round announced in May 2026, valuing the company at a reported $2 billion. Part of that capital was designated for expanding production capacity. The company is also working with Nvidia on the planned deployment of Space-1 Vera Rubin computing modules adapted for orbital AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n
In July, Cowboy Space secured access to NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to test rocket components at the center\u2019s E Test Complex. Lamont said the company is targeting its first engine hot-fire test in 2027, a milestone that would begin validating the propulsion system for the planned 2028 launch vehicle.<\/p>\n
Before that rocket flies, Cowboy Space plans to launch an initial spacecraft in 2026 to demonstrate technology derived from its original space-based solar-power program. A follow-on mission planned for 2027 would test a cluster of spacecraft and high-speed optical communications.<\/p>\n
The Kent facility must now be converted, equipped and staffed in parallel with those demonstration missions and propulsion tests. Its ability to progress from an adapted distribution center to a qualified aerospace production line will be an early measure of whether Cowboy Space can translate its orbital data center architecture into launch-ready hardware at constellation scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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