Google Project Suncatcher Gets First AI Response From a TPU in Orbit: Gemma 4 Downlinks a Haiku, Twin Satellites Planned for 2027
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google Research announced that the Project Suncatcher prototype satellite, launched on October 1, finished commissioning and ran a prompt on its onboard TPU with the open Gemma 4 model, downlinking a haiku as it passed over Svalbard, Norway. Google calls it the first AI response from a data-center-class TPU in orbit. Next come thermal-stress and radiation tests, then two interconnected satellites in 2027 to test AI computation distributed across satellites.
Key Takeaways
- The satellite launched on October 1 on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare, built with Planet, and ran its first in-orbit inference after about three weeks of commissioning (official account).
- Per TechCrunch, it carries four TPUs and generates up to about 1 kW, so power limits it to one TPU at a time for roughly 20 minutes.
- Sundar Pichai's announcement drew about 26K likes and 3.97M views; Google's official account said "Our TPUs just phoned home... from space."
- Ground proton-beam tests in Google's paper found high-bandwidth memory irregularities only after a cumulative 2 krad(Si), about 3x the 750 rad(Si) minimum requirement (as cited by The Register).
- Two interconnected satellites are planned for 2027 to test optical inter-satellite links and AI computation distributed across satellites.
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