Google Launches First Project Suncatcher Satellite to Test TPUs in Orbit

Google has launched its first Project Suncatcher satellite to test Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) in orbit. The refrigerator-sized satellite, developed in partnership with Planet Labs, carries four Google TPUs and flew on the SpaceX Transporter-18 rideshare mission.

The mission is planned to stay operational for a year and will allow Google to power up the chips and run AI model workloads in 15-minute bursts. This limit was set by heat management concerns.

Google's Trillium TPUs were tested on the ground, withstanding proton-beam testing at UC Davis's Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, which simulated a five-year space mission's radiation dose.

The next milestone for Project Suncatcher is a pair of satellites in 2027 to test high-bandwidth, short-range laser links between spacecraft. This is a prerequisite for clusters with dozens of TPUs on each satellite.