Google said October 1 that its Project Suncatcher prototype, built with Planet, launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission. The company confirmed contact and said the satellite is operating as expected.
An orbital hardware test, not a data center
Over the coming weeks, Google plans to collect in-orbit data on how its TPU hardware handles spaceflight, radiation and thermal extremes. The mission is an early research step toward possible space-based machine-learning infrastructure; it does not demonstrate a commercial orbital data center.
KPBS reports the prototype carries four TPUs and will run Gemma for short periods under thermal limits. Its credited image shows the satellite at Planet Labs before launch, not in orbit.