Google’s Project Suncatcher to test AI TPUs on first satellite launch

Google is using the MVP satellite as a learning mission to see if its TPUs and cooling tech can survive and work in orbit.

Google’s Project Suncatcher will send its first experimental AI satellite, MVP, into low Earth orbit on October 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 to test whether Tensor Processing Units can reliably operate in space. The refrigerator‑sized satellite, built by Planet Labs and carrying four Google TPUs with about one kilowatt of solar power, is intended to act like a single server’s worth of AI compute. This mission focuses on gathering in‑orbit data about how the chips tolerate launch g‑forces, radiation, and the thermal environment after earlier ground tests at Crocker Nuclear Laboratory showed Trillium TPUs surviving radiation levels beyond a typical five‑year mission. Google will also evaluate a proprietary cooling system that uses conductive materials and can keep the chips running for roughly 15 minutes before they must be powered down to cool. The company positions this as a first step toward potential constellations of AI satellites, with a follow‑up launch of two satellites planned for 2027 rather than immediately delivering operational orbital data centers.