Google's Suncatcher prototype space data center is online and communicating with the ground, according to TechCrunch. The satellite launched earlier this month alongside more than 100 other spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The satellite carries a single Google Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and generates up to 1 kW of electricity. TechCrunch reports that the TPU can only run for about twenty minutes at a time because of its power demands, which complicates space-to-ground communications.
After about three weeks of commissioning, engineers sent their first prompt this week. They asked Google DeepMind's Gemma 4, the model preloaded on the satellite, to write a haiku about being in space. A spokesperson told TechCrunch the satellite is operating nominally.
The ongoing test campaign will examine how the chips perform under thermal stress and in the space radiation environment. Radiation can cause "bit flips" that corrupt data without triggering typical monitoring tools. Ground tests suggested radiation would have minimal impact on inference workloads but more effect on training, according to the report. Google will assess these effects in orbit.
If the TPU proves capable, Google plans to launch two more satellites with advanced chips in 2027. Those satellites are meant to support higher power generation and demonstrate inter-satellite optical links.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, holds a significant investment stake in SpaceX. Both companies will need Starship, SpaceX's heavy-lift rocket still in development, to be fully and rapidly reusable to launch orbital data centers. A peer-reviewed analysis by Suncatcher researchers estimated SpaceX would need to fly Starship 1,800 times to achieve the cost reductions it saw with earlier vehicles, according to TechCrunch.