Google's AI satellite sends its first answer from orbit: a haiku

Google says its Project Suncatcher prototype has returned "the first-ever AI response from a data center class TPU in orbit". The team sent a prompt to the onboard Gemma 4 open model, asking for a haiku about being in space. The answer came down as the satellite passed Svalbard, Norway:

Blue marble below
Data streams in silent grace
Starlight feeds my core. ✨

The satellite, developed with Planet, went up on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission on 1 October. Google wants to learn how its TPUs handle launch vibration, radiation and temperature extremes, and how a new TPU cooling system performs in space.

Next come tests of how the chips perform under thermal stress and radiation. After that, Google plans two connected satellites in 2027 to test high-bandwidth laser links between them.

A short poem shows that a model can run in orbit. It says little yet about whether orbital data centers can work at scale, and Google's post gives no performance figures.

Sources

• We've received our first response from the Project Suncatcher prototype satellite, Google
• Project Suncatcher facts, Google