Google reports first AI response from a TPU in orbit
Google said its Project Suncatcher prototype satellite returned the first-ever AI response from a data center class TPU in orbit, a haiku generated by an onboard Gemma 4 model.
AI illustrationGoogle said it has received the first response from its Project Suncatcher prototype satellite, which it described as the first-ever AI response from a data center class TPU in orbit.
The company launched the prototype satellite on October 1 as the first step in what it calls a long-term research moonshot to explore powering AI compute in space. In the weeks since, Google said, it worked through its commissioning checklist, which included powering up the host and TPU trays and successfully running early machine learning tests.
The milestone came this week. During a ground-station pass, Google uplinked its first prompt to the Gemma 4 open model running on board, asking it to generate a haiku about being in space. The downlinked poem confirmed success as the satellite passed by Svalbard, Norway, the company said.
After that first output, Google said it tested space-themed limericks and telemetry prompts reporting the technical status of the payload systems.
Next, the company said it will continue with a series of tests to evaluate how the TPUs perform under thermal stress and radiation exposure in orbit. Verifying that its TPUs can reliably execute workloads in space paves the way for its next milestone of twin interconnected satellites in 2027, Google said.