Google's space data center satellite starts running AI models

Summarised from 3 outlets · Updated 31 Oct, 15:56 · Archive

Google's Suncatcher satellite, carrying AI chips in orbit, has begun operating after launching earlier this month.

Google's Project Suncatcher satellite, which launched earlier this month aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket alongside more than 100 other spacecraft, is now operational and communicating with the ground. The prototype space data centre carries four Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and generates up to 1 kilowatt of electricity, intended to pave the way for future networks of satellites performing large inference workloads in orbit.

After a three-week commissioning process that tested the satellite's subsystems, engineers sent their first prompt this week. They asked the onboard Gemma 4 model, from Google DeepMind, to write a haiku about being in space. The model responded: 'Blue marble below / Data streams in silent grace / Starlight feeds my core.'

Google also tested the satellite with space-themed limericks and asked it to report on orbital conditions around the spacecraft. A company spokesperson confirmed the satellite was operating nominally. The power demands of the TPU mean it can only run one processor at a time for about twenty minutes, complicating space-to-ground communications.

The ongoing test campaign will examine how the chips perform under thermal stress and in the space radiation environment. Although Google has extensively tested its TPUs in particle accelerators on Earth, the company now needs to verify how radiation's real effects on hardware in space affect processor performance.

Google says verifying that TPUs can reliably execute workloads in space paves the way for its next milestone: twin interconnected satellites planned for 2027.

Google's space data center satellite starts running AI models — Image: The Register

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How it is being reported

Google's AI satellite sends a very expensive haiku to EarthExperimental orbital datacenter prototype puts its TPU to work producing poetryThe Register · 31 Oct, 15:36
Google’s satellite AI server transmits its first response to EarthGoogle's AI chip-equipped satellite has generated its first response from space. In a blog post on Friday, Google says it successfully booted up the satellite's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), allowing the on-board Gemma 4 model to follow through on a prompt to create a haiku about being in space: Blue marble below Data streams in […]The Verge · 30 Oct, 18:21
Google’s first data center satellite is online and writing poetryThe first TPU in space is a running a Google DeepMind Gemma 4 model and writing cheesy poetry.TechCrunch · 30 Oct, 17:00

In this story: Google · Google DeepMind · SpaceX · Project Suncatcher

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