Google’s first data center satellite is online and writing poetry
techcrunch ·
Google has successfully launched its first prototype space data center, named Suncatcher, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket earlier this month. The satellite carries a single Google Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and generates up to one kilowatt of electricity, aiming to pave the way for future networks of satellites performing large inference workloads in orbit. Due to power constraints, the TPU can only operate for approximately twenty minutes at a time, which complicates space-to-ground communications. After a three-week commissioning period, engineers tested the system by asking the pre-loaded Gemma 4 model to write a haiku about being in space. The ongoing test campaign will evaluate how the chips perform under thermal stress and space radiation, specifically looking for bit flips that could corrupt data. If successful, Google plans to launch two additional satellites in 2027 equipped with advanced chips and inter-satellite optical links as part of the Starcloud project. This initiative relies heavily on the rapid reusability of SpaceX's Starship rocket, supported by Alphabet's significant investment stake in SpaceX.
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