SpaceX lofted Google TPUs to orbit in first Project Suncatcher AI test

SpaceX launched Google’s tensor processing units into low Earth orbit on Thursday aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare, marking the first in-orbit test of Alphabet’s Project Suncatcher moonshot to put AI computing in space.

CNBC reported a Falcon 9 liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California after an 11:15 a.m. PT window, carrying Planet Labs satellites that include a solar-powered prototype equipped with Google TPUs. Google frames Suncatcher — first detailed publicly in late 2025 and expanded in a Sept. 24 research post — as an experiment in whether satellites that see near-constant sunlight (the company cites up to eight times more solar power than on Earth) could eventually host scalable machine-learning workloads, with later missions meant to link constellations over high-bandwidth lasers.

The immediate goal is survivability data, not a working orbital data centre. Google’s research blog says the prototype will show how Trillium-class TPUs handle launch vibration, radiation and vacuum cooling after ground tests that included proton-beam runs at UC Davis and thermal-vacuum chamber work; a fuller two-satellite laser-link demo is eyed for 2027. SpaceX has separately touted its own orbital “supercompute” ambitions, while Alphabet remains a major SpaceX investor — a stake CNBC put at more than $82 billion after the rocket company’s June IPO.

For Canadian AI and climate watchers, Suncatcher is still a research milestone: experts quoted in coverage stress launch cost, radiation hardening, debris risk and cooling remain open questions before space-based training or inference could challenge terrestrial data centres. Sources: CNBC; Google Research — Project Suncatcher.