Google’s experimental satellite has completed its initial commissioning and sent its first data to Earth: a haiku about being in space. The spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 nearly three weeks ago, according to the supplied report.
During commissioning, Google brought the satellite’s AI accelerators and other hardware online and ran initial machine-learning tests. Engineers then sent a command from the ground asking the preinstalled Gemma 4 model to write a three-line poem. In a translation of the English original, it reads: “The blue marble below, / Data streams in quiet grace, / Starlight feeds my core.”
The satellite is part of Google’s Suncatcher research project, which is exploring whether space could eventually support scalable infrastructure for machine learning. It carries four Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and solar panels capable of producing up to one kilowatt of power. Because of the chips’ energy demands, Google says only one TPU can operate at a time. It also runs in short intervals of about 15 minutes; continuous operation would strain the satellite’s power and cooling systems.
Google says that if the onboard TPUs prove capable, it plans to launch two additional satellites in 2027, equipped to generate more power. The longer-term goal is to connect multiple spacecraft into an orbital computing network.
Other companies are also pursuing space-based computing. The report says SpaceX filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission in January seeking permission to put as many as one million data centers in orbit. US startup Starcloud launched a satellite carrying an Nvidia chip last winter and aims to operate orbital data centers on a scale comparable to terrestrial facilities by 2030.
Supporters argue that orbital data centers could ease pressure on electricity grids and reduce the water needed to cool servers on Earth, while excess heat could dissipate into space. Critics warn that manufacturing, launching and eventually disposing of the facilities could give them a larger carbon footprint than data centers on the ground.
Sources: t3n.