• SpaceX's orbital data center plan faces four key challenges.
• Launch economics, hardware refresh cycles, data transfer constraints, and thermal management are major hurdles.
• SpaceX's IPO valuation prices in a future where orbital data centers capture a significant share of global cloud computing.

SpaceX's orbital data center strategy may indicate a shift in the space economy towards more ambitious projects, but the four challenges it faces could suggest significant risks for investors. The success of this strategy may depend on overcoming these hurdles, which could have implications for the broader space industry and investors in space ETFs.