Google said on October 1, 2026 that its prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher, built in partnership with Planet, has launched into orbit aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX. The company said its team has confirmed contact with the satellite and that it is operating as expected.
What launched
Travis Beals, Senior Director, Paradigms of Intelligence at Google, wrote that the prototype satellite went up on the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX and was built in partnership with Planet.
Google said contact with the satellite has been confirmed and that it is operating as expected.
What the mission is testing
According to Google, the launch is the first step in what it describes as a long-term research moonshot exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure.
Over the coming weeks, the company said, it will gather in-orbit data on how its TPUs handle the physical stress of spaceflight and the radiation and thermal extremes of space.
Published research
Google said a peer-reviewed paper detailing the research behind the mission is now available in the journal Joule.
Beals wrote that some things can only be tested in space, and that Google will use what it learns from the experiments to refine its designs and share more as the mission unfolds.
Key facts and where they come from
- The Project Suncatcher prototype satellite launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
our prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher, built in partnership with Planet, launched into orbit aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX
- Google says contact with the satellite is confirmed and it is operating as expected.
Our team has confirmed contact with the satellite and it is operating as expected.
- The mission is framed as a long-term research moonshot on machine learning infrastructure in space.
This is the first step in a long-term research moonshot exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure.
- Google will collect in-orbit data on TPU performance under spaceflight stress, radiation and thermal extremes.
we'll gather in-orbit data on how our TPUs handle the physical stress of spaceflight and the radiation and thermal extremes of space
- A peer-reviewed paper on the research is published in Joule.
Our peer-reviewed paper is now available in Joule, detailing the research behind this mission.