Google says its AI chip-equipped satellite has successfully generated its first responses from space. According to a Friday blog post, the company booted up Tensor Processing Units aboard the Project Suncatcher satellite and ran the Gemma 4 model, which completed a prompt to create a haiku about being in space. Google reports it also tested other space-themed prompts and telemetry tasks.
The satellite launched into orbit earlier in October as part of Project Suncatcher, an experimental initiative exploring the possibility of operating AI data centers in space.
Google plans further tests to evaluate how the TPUs perform under thermal stress and radiation exposure in orbit. The company describes verifying reliable workload execution in space as preparation for its next milestone: launching twin interconnected satellites in 2027.