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1 / 4Google's first data center satellite is online and running Gemma 4 in orbit×

It's working

Suncatcher, a prototype built by Planet and launched earlier this month on a Falcon 9, has finished about three weeks of commissioning and is operating normally, Google says.

The power limit

It carries four TPUs, but its solar array makes at most about 1 kW, so only one chip can run at a time and for about 20 minutes.

First job

The first job was a Gemma 4 prompt, which returned a haiku about being in space.

The real test

The real test is how the chips handle heat and radiation-induced bit flips. If they hold up, Google plans two more TPU satellites in 2027 to test more power and optical links between satellites.

Sources and the full story

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Google's first data center satellite is online and running Gemma 4 in orbit

Suncatcher, a prototype built by Planet and launched earlier this month on a Falcon 9, has finished about three weeks of commissioning and is operating normally, Google says. It carries four TPUs, but its solar array makes at most about 1 kW, so only one chip can run at a time and for about 20 minutes. The first job was a Gemma 4 prompt, which returned a haiku about being in space. The real test is how the chips handle heat and radiation-induced bit flips. If they hold up, Google plans two more TPU satellites in 2027 to test more power and optical links between satellites. SourcesB

Sources

• BGoogle's first data center satellite is online and writing poetry (TechCrunch)techcrunch.com

This story ran in the Afternoon Brief of October 30th 2026.