The tech company Google has announced the first orbital test for Project Suncatcher, a research initiative exploring whether space can host scalable machine learning infrastructure. Developed in partnership with Planet PBS (American satellite imaging and data analytics company), a prototype satellite carrying Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) will launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission to evaluate hardware performance in low Earth orbit, where near-constant sunlight offers up to eight times more solar power generation than on Earth.
The initial mission focuses on testing how the hardware handles the physical vibration of launch, radiation exposure, and orbital temperature extremes. Ground testing at a proton beam facility at UC Davis’s Crocker Nuclear Laboratory while running AI workloads, showed Google’s Trillium TPUs survived high-radiation proton beams, while thermal chamber tests evaluated a specialized heat pipe and radiator cooling system designed for a vacuum.
Google shared that they plan to use data from this launch to refine future designs, targeting a 2027 mission with two satellites to test high-bandwidth laser communications between orbiting hardware.
