Google is sending its first AI data center to space

Google is preparing to launch its first Project Suncatcher satellite on Thursday, taking an early step toward its long-term goal of building AI computing infrastructure in space.

The prototype is scheduled to launch aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 mission is carrying 130 payloads and is scheduled to lift off at 2:18 p.m. ET.

Built with Planet Labs, the satellite carries Google Tensor Processing Units designed to test whether the company’s AI hardware can withstand the radiation, vibration and thermal conditions of low Earth orbit. Google describes the mission as its first in-orbit test of Project Suncatcher rather than an operational data center.

Project Suncatcher explores whether future constellations of interconnected satellites could host large-scale AI compute while drawing on near-constant solar energy. Google says satellites in low Earth orbit can generate as much as eight times more solar power than comparable systems on Earth.

The approach has attracted attention as AI companies face rapidly growing electricity and infrastructure requirements for terrestrial data centers.

One of Google’s biggest technical questions is whether AI accelerators can reliably operate in space. Solar radiation and cosmic rays can interfere with electronics and cause bit flips, while the absence of airflow makes cooling high-performance chips significantly more difficult.

Google said ground tests showed its Trillium TPUs could withstand a total radiation dose greater than what they would be expected to encounter during a five-year mission. The company has also tested a cooling design combining heat pipes and radiators in simulated vacuum conditions.

The satellite will provide real-world data on whether those systems continue working once deployed in orbit. Google plans another milestone in 2027, when two satellites are expected to test high-bandwidth laser links needed to connect future computing clusters.

Google is not alone in exploring orbital computing.

Starcloud launched a satellite carrying an Nvidia H100 GPU in November 2025 and later ran AI workloads in orbit, while Nvidia has since introduced dedicated computing platforms aimed at orbital data centers and other space-based AI applications.

Blue Origin has also asked US regulators for permission to deploy as many as 51,600 satellites under Project Sunrise, a proposed constellation designed to operate as a data center in space.

The growing interest reflects a broader bet that falling launch costs and abundant solar energy could eventually make some computing workloads economical to run outside Earth.

For now, Project Suncatcher remains an experiment. Google says the first mission is intended to determine what works, identify engineering failures and provide data for future designs rather than demonstrate a commercially viable orbital data center