Google's Project Suncatcher Sends AI Chips Into Space
Update, Oct. 1: the Suncatcher prototype is in orbit It flew. SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on October 1 at 11:32 a.m. PDT, carrying 130 payloads — including Google's Project Suncatcher M1 prototype, the solar-powered satellite built with Planet Labs to test whether Google's Tensor Processing Units can survive and operate in space (per nasaspaceflight.com's launch coverage). The Suncatcher payload separated at T+1:01:25, and the Falcon 9's first stage — flying its 25th mission — touched down at Landing Zone 4 for another recovery. What happens now is the unglamorous part: months of watching. Google and Planet Labs engineers will track how the TPUs handle launch vibration, space radiation and the brutal thermal problem of cooling chips with no air — the make-or-break questions for any future orbital data center. Google CEO Sundar Pichai framed the mission on X back on September 25: "Can our TPUs survive a...