Key takeaways
- Google's Project Suncatcher prototype is online and, per a Google spokesperson, operating nominally, TechCrunch reports.
- It carries four TPUs, of which one runs at a time for about 20 minutes, and it has Gemma 4 preloaded.
- Google plans two more satellites in 2027 if the TPUs perform well.
Google's first data center satellite is online and running a model in orbit, TechCrunch reported on October 30. The Project Suncatcher prototype launched earlier in October, spent about three weeks testing its subsystems, and is now working. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch it is operating "nominally".
It is a small test, and it is the first real data on whether AI chips can do useful work in space. Google has not said it is a product. It is an experiment to find out whether orbital computing could ever make economic sense.
What is on the satellite
The prototype carries four of Google's Tensor Processing Units, its AI chips. According to TechCrunch, the satellite generates up to 1 kilowatt of power, so only one TPU can run at a time, and each can run for about 20 minutes.
Google DeepMind's Gemma 4, an open model, is preloaded on board. Engineers asked it for a haiku about being in space and got back "Blue marble below / Data streams in silent grace / Starlight feeds my core." They also tried space-themed limericks and asked the spacecraft to report on its orbital conditions.
What Google is testing next
The poetry is a demo. The real questions are about heat and radiation. Radiation can cause bit flips, errors that corrupt data without tripping normal monitoring. TechCrunch reports that ground tests suggested radiation is a minor problem for running a model and a bigger one for training it. The satellite will now check that in orbit.
Project Suncatcher next steps
If the TPUs hold up, Google plans to launch two more satellites in 2027 with more advanced chips. They would generate more power and test optical links between satellites.
The long-term aim is orbital infrastructure that is economical in the 2030s. That depends on cheap, fully reusable rockets. TechCrunch notes that a peer-reviewed analysis published in October estimated SpaceX would need about 1,800 Starship flights to reach comparable cost reductions. Alphabet also holds a significant stake in SpaceX.
Google's earlier research post on the design is here. We could not confirm from it the satellite's launch details, so the figures above come from TechCrunch's report and its conversation with Google.
Watch for the radiation results, which decide whether training, not just inference, could ever move to orbit.
