Google Brings 4-TPU Suncatcher Online, Testing Orbital AI Inference

3 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Oct 30

Google’s Suncatcher prototype is now online after a roughly three-week commissioning period, with engineers this week sending its first prompt to a preloaded Gemma 4 model in orbit.
The satellite carries four TPUs but can power only one for about 20 minutes at a time from its 1 kW system, making inference tests and space-to-ground communications more constrained.
The campaign will measure how the chips handle thermal stress and space radiation, including memory “bit flips” that could silently corrupt data and are harder to model fully on Earth.
If the hardware performs well, Google plans to launch two more satellites in 2027 with higher power generation and optical inter-satellite links to test distributed orbital workloads.
That roadmap points to larger space-based data centers in the 2030s, but it also depends on Starship becoming rapidly reusable and on Alphabet sustaining its AI push despite pressure on ad growth.